ELECTROLYSIS OF METALS.--For sale,-one of Prof. Sanders' new Electro-Magnetic Batteries, for extracting mercury, lead, and antimony from the human body.

The battery is complete and in working order. I will ship it by express on receipt of the price, viz, $35.

Address W. R. Merwin, M.D.,

52 University Place, New York.

A GOOD LOCATION FOR SALE.--In consequence of ill health, I will sell my practice and property, consisting of a frame house of ten rooms, a carriage-house, corn-crib, wood-house and other outbuildings, with four acres of excellent land, very superiorly fruited, attached. Or I will sell my practice and rent my property, if desired, at reasonable rates. To any Eclectic Physician wishing to engage immediately in a lively and paying practice, in one of the most beautiful towns of Western New York, this location offers a rare opportunity.

Trumansburg is a growing town of from two to three thousand inhabitants, located on the west shore of Cayuga Lake, ten miles from Ithaca and two miles from the famous Taughannock Falls, in one of the finest and healthiest sections of country in the United States. The people are thoroughly Eclectic, and pay their bills. Terms of sale given on application.

Address, P. E. HILL,

Trumansburg, Tompkins Co., N. Y.

OBITUARY.

DIED, May 13, 1868, Dr. E. F. BASCOM, of Portland, Maine. Disease: Phthisis Pulmonalis.

At Oldtown, Maine, March 25, 1868, of Typhoid Fever, Dr. CHARLES FORTIOR, a graduate of Glasgow Medical College.

Both of the above were active members of the Maine Eclectic Medical Society, and their loss will be deeply felt by the Society as well as by their immediate friends and relatives.

At the meeting of the Society June 24, 1868, the following resolutions of respect to deceased members, were adopted unanimously:

Resolved, That in the decease of our much honored and highly respected friends and fellows of this Society, E. F. BASCOM and CHARLES FORTIOR, we have sustained a great and irreparable loss.

Resolved, That in this deep affliction we extend our sympathies to the surviving friends and relatives of our departed brothers.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the New York Eclectic Medical Review and Cincinnati and Philadelphia Eclectic medical journals for publication, and also to the newspapers published in Portland.

C. H. RILEY, M. D., Cor. Sec. Me. Medical Society.

WRITERS have fixed the time of the development of the theosophical system known by the name of ECLECTIC during the second century of the Christian Era. It appears to have had a beginning much earlier, and indeed is traced by Diogenes Laertius to an Egyptian prophet or priest named PotAmun,* who flourished in the earlier years of the dynasty of the Ptolemies.

The establishment of the Macedonian kingdom in Egypt had been followed by the opening of schools of science and philosophy at the new capital. Alexandria soon became celebrated as the metropolis of literature. Every faith and sect had representatives there. There had always been communication between the sages of Bactria and Upper India, and the philosophers of the West. The conquests of Alexander, Seleucus, and the Romans, had increased the acquaintance. The learned men now thronged at Alexandria. The Platonists seem to have been most numerous, and to have

*This name suggests an office or function, rather than appellation, and signifies one consecrated to Amun.

VOL. IV. NO. 4.

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held their ground the longest. Under Philadelphus Judaism was also planted there, and the Hellenic teachers became rivals of the College of Rabbis at Babylon. The Buddhistic, Vedantic and Magian systems were expounded along with the phi losophies of Greece. It was not wonderful that thoughtful men supposed that the strife of words ought to cease, and considered it possible to extract one harmonious system from the various teachings.

There did result an approximation of sentiment. Aristobulus, the Jew, declared that the ethics of Aristotle were derived from the Law of Moses; and Philo, after him, attempted to interpret the Pentateuch in accordance with the doctrines of Pythagoras and the Academy. Josephus declared that in this book of the Genesis, Moses wrote philosophically; and the Essenes of Carmel were reproduced in the Therapeute of Egypt, who in turn were declared by Eusebius to be identical with the Christians, though probably existing long before the Christian Era. Indeed, in its turn Christianity also was taught at Alexandria, and underwent an analogous metamorphosis. Panusæa, Athenagoras and Clement were thoroughly instructed in the Platonic philsophy, and comprehended its essential unity with the oriental systems.

Ammonius Saccas, the great teacher, who seemed to have been raised up for the great work of reconciling the different systems, was a native of Alexandria, and the son of Christian parents, although associating much with those who adhered to the established religion of the Empire. He was a man of rare learning and endowments, of blameless life and amiable disposition. His almost superhuman ken and many excellencies won for him the title of Geodidakтos, theodidaktos, or God-taught; but he followed the modest example of Pythagoras, and only assumed the title of philaletheian, or lover of the truth. His followers were styled Analogetici, because they interpreted the sacred legends, narratives, myths and mysteries by a principle of analogy or correspondence, making events which were said to have occurred in the external world to relate solely or principally to operations and experiences of the human soul. In subsequent times, however,

they were termed Eclectics, because their doctrines had been critically culled from the different philosophical systems. It was the purpose of Ammonius to eliminate the incongruous elements, which he regarded as accretions, and to retain everything in all faiths which was really useful.

It is not altogether easy to state with exactness what were the doctrines of the Philaletheians. Like Orpheus, Pythagoras, Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus himself, Ammonius committed nothing to writing. Instead, he only inculcated moral truths upon his auditors, while he communicated his more important doctrines to persons duly instructed and disciplined, imposing on them the obligations of secrecy, as was done before. him by Zoroaster and Pythagoras, and in the Mysteries. Except a few treatises of his disciples, we have only the declarations of his adversaries from which to ascertain what he actually taught.

This was, however, no exception to the common rule. The older worship, which was preserved in a certain degree in the Mysteries, required an oath from the neophytes or catechumens not to divulge what they had learned. The great Pythagoras divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric.

The Essenes of Judea and Carmel made similar distinctions, dividing their adherents into neophytes, brethren and the perfect. Pythagoras is said by Iamblichus to have spent a time at Carmel. Jesus himself followed the same custom, declaring to his disciples that to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, whereas to the multitude it was not given, and therefore he spoke in parables which had a twofold meaning. He justified himself in this by the precept:

"Give not that which is holy to the dogs,

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine;

For the swine will trample the pearls under their feet,
And the dogs will turn and rend you."-Matthew vii.

The Magians of the East received instruction and initiation in the caves and secret lodges of Bactria, and the prophet Daniel is said to have been installed by Nebuchadnezzar as

the Rab Mag or chief of the learned order. It would seem from Josephus, Philo, and Moses Maimonides, that the Hebrews were also possessors of secret doctrines. Josephus says that Moses wrote philosophically or esoterically of events in the book of Genesis, and. Philo attempts to give their interior meaning. Maimonides declares as follows:

66 Whoever shall find out the true sense of the book of Genesis ought to take care not to divulge it. This is a maxim which all our sages repeat to us, and above all, respecting the work of the six days. If a person should discover the true meaning of it by himself or by the aid of another, then he ought to be silent; or, if he speaks of it he ought to speak of it but obscurely, and in an enigmatical manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be guessed by those who can understand me."

Abraham, whose name has a Brahmin sound to it, is said to have migrated from Ur, a college or commune of the Chaldeans or Magians; and Josephus declares that he taught mathematics. In the Pythagorean vocabulary mathematics mean esoteric knowledge. Moses, the M'usa,* or great sage of the Isarelites, it is said, was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, thus becoming a priest of their religion and an initiate or adept in their secret learning. Paul declares the story of Abraham and his two sons to be an allegory prefiguring the Judaical and Christian systems. Clement, who had been initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, declared that the doctrines there taught contained in them the end of all instruction, and had been taken from Moses and the prophets.

With a general similarity in the character of the ancient religious and philosophical views, the course would seem to have been indicated for Ammonius to pursue. Countenanced by Clement and Athenagoras in the church, and by learned men of the Synagogue, the Academy and the Grove, he fulfilled his labor by teaching a common doctrine for all. He

* In the Sanscrit language, the name of Moses would seem to be derived from the words maha, great, wuse, a sage or wise man. It would be pronounced Musa.