Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations… (1817)
“ The moral doctrine of the Alexandrian school was as follows: --The mind of man, originally a portion of the divine Being, having fallen into a state of darkness and defilement by its union with the body, is to be gradually emancipated from the chains of matter, and rise by contemplation to the knowledge and vision of God. The end philosophy, therefore, is the liberation of the soul from its corporeal imprisonment. For this purpose the Eclectic philosophy recommends abstinence, with other voluntary mortifications, and religious exercises. ”
