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SPIRITUALISM

to the public" (Preface to Fr. ed. of the " Exercises " by Seager, London, 1847, p. xi). Janssen says: "This little book, considered by the Protestants themselves as a first class psychological masterpiece, has been for the German nation, and towards the historj- of its faith and civilization, one of the most important writings of modern times. ... It has worked such extraordinary influence over souls, that no other ascetic work may be compared to it" (" L'AUemagne et la R(?forme "," Fr. ed., IV, 402).

Non-Catholics also praise it. "The Spiritual Ex- ercises", according to Macaulay, "is a manual of conversion, proposing a plan of interior discipline, by means of which, in neither more nor less than four weeks, the metamorphosis of a sinner into a faithful servant of Christ is realized, step by step" ("Edin- burgh Review", November, 1842, p. 29). More re- cently, the Canon Charles Bodington, praising the Jesuit missionaries, so lavish of their sweat and blood, really "worthy of hearty admiration and re-spect", added: "Probably the noble and devotional side of the hves of these remarkable men has been largely sustained by the use of the method of the spiritual exercises left to them by their founder" ("Books of Devotion", London, 1903, p. 130). Finally, a short time ago Karl HoU (see bibliography), a German, de- clared the "Exercises" to be a masterpiece of peda- gogj', which instead of annihilating personality serves to elevate the spirit. The Ppsitivist P. Lafitte, in the lectures deUvered by him at the College de France, declares: "These Exercises are to my mind a real masterpiece of political and moral wisdom and merit careful study. . . . The destination of these Exer- cises is to so organize the moral life of the individual that by a prolonged, solitary, and personal labour he himself reaUzes the most perfect balance of the mind" ("Revue occidental", 1 May, 1894, p. 309).

Monumerita hislorica, S. J, (Madrid, 1894); Sommervogel, BM. de la Compagnie de Jisus (Brussels, 1890); Ada SS., VII, July; STdGER, Die aszetische Literatur Hber die geistlichen Uebungen (Ratisbon, ISoO); DiERTlNa, Hist, exercitiorum spiritualium (Rome, 1732) ; Watrigant, La genise des exercices de saint Ignace (.\mieng, 1897) ; Debuchy, Introduction d VUxtde des exercices tpiritueU (Enghien, 1906); Bartoli-Michel. Hist, de s. Ignace de Loyola (Bruges, 1893); Astr.vix, Hist, de la compaHia de Jesus -en la asistencia de EspaHa (Nladrid, 1902); JoLY, Saint Ignace de Loyola (Paris. 1899); Besse, Une question d'histoire liu^aire au X VI' siicle in Revue des quest, hist. (January, 1897) ; ScAREz, De religione, IV, tr. X. IX, v; Clare, The Science of Spiritual Life according to the Spiritual Exercises (New York, 1896); Janssek, L'AUematne et la reforme, IV (Paris. 1895); HoLL, Die geistlichen Ubungen des Ignatius von Loyola (Tubingen,

1905). Paul Debuchy.

Spiritualism. — The term "Spiritualism" has been frequently used during recent years to denote the beUef in tlic jiossibility of communication with dis- embodied spirits, and the various devices employed to reahze this belief in practice. The term "Spirit- ism" (q. v.), which obtains in Italy, France, and Ger- many, seems more apt to express this meaning. Spiritualism, then, suitably stands opposed to Ma- teriahsm. We may say in general that Spiritualism is the doctrine which denies that the contents of the universe are limited to matter and the properties and operations of matter. It maintains the exist- ence of real being or beings (minds, spirits) radically distinct in nature from matter. It may take the form of Spiritualistic Idealism, which denies the exist- ence of any real material bring outside of the mind; or, whilst defending the reality of spiritual being, it may also allow the separate existence of the material world. Further, Idealistic Spiritualism may either take the form of Monism (e. g. with Fichte), which teaches that there exists a single universal mind or ego of which all finite minds are but transient mooda or stages: or it may adopt a pluralistic theory (e.g. with Berkeley), which rasolves the universe into a Divine Mind together with a multitude of finite minds into which the former infu.ses all those ex- periences that generate the belief in an external,

independent, material world. The second or mod- erate form of Spiritualism, whilst maintaining the existence of spirit, and in particular the human mind or soul, as a real being distinct from the body, does not deny the reality of matter. It is, in fact, the common doctrine of Dualism. However, among the systems of philosophy which adhere to Dualism, some conceive the separateness or mutual independ- ence of soul and body to be greater and others less. With some philosophers of the former class, soul and body seem to have been looked upon as complete beings merely accidentally united. For these a main difficulty is to give a satisfactory account of the in- ter-action of two beings so radically opposed in nature.

Historically, we find the early Greek philosophers tending generally towards Materialism. Sense ex- perience is more impressive than our higher, rational consciousness, and sensation is essentially bound up with the bodily organism. Anaxagoras was the first, apparently, among the Greeks to vindicate the pre- dominance of mind or reason in the universe. It was, however, rather as a principle of order, to ac- count for the arrangement and design evident in nature as a whole, than to vindicate the reality of individual minds distinct from the bodies which they anirnate. Plato was virtually the father of western spiritualistic philosophy. He emphasized the dis- tinction between the irrational or sensuous and the ratioiial functions of the soul. He will not allow the superior elements in knowledge or the higher "parts" of the soul to be explained away in terms of the lower. Both subsist in continuous independence and op- position. Indeed, the rational soul is related to the body merely as the pilot to the ship or the rider to his horse. Aristotle fully recognized the spirituality of the higher rational activity of thought, but his treatment of its precise relation to the individual human soul is obscure. On the other hand, his con- ception of the union of soul and body, and of the unity of the human person, is much superior to that of Plato. Though the future life of the human soul, and consequently its capacity for an existence separate from the body, was one of the most fundamental and important doctrines of the Christian religion, yet ideas as to the precise meaning of spirituality were not at first clear, and we find several of the earliest Chris- tian writers (though maintaining the future existence of the soul separate from the body), yet conceiving the soul in a more or less materialistic way (cf. Justin, Irensus, Tertullian, Clement, etc.). The Catholic philosophic doctrine of Spiritualism re- ceived much of its development from St. Augustine, the disciple of Platonic philosophy, and its completion from Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas, who perfected the Aristotelian account of the union of soul and body.

Modern Spiritualism, especially of the more ex- treme type, has its origin in Descartes. Malebranche, and indirectly Berkeley, who contributed so much in the sequel to Monistic Idealism, are indebted to Descartes, whilst every form of exaggerated Dualism which set mind and body in isolation and contrast traces its descent from him. In spite of serious faults and defects in their systems, it should be recognized that Descartes and Leibnitz contributed much of the most effective resistance to the wave of Materialism which acquired such strength in Europe at- the end of the eighteenth and during the first half of the nineteenth centuries. In particular, Maine de Biran, who emphasized the inner activity and spirituality of the will, followed by JoufTroy and Cousin, set up so vigorous an opposition to the current Materialism as to win for their theories the distinctive title of "Spiritualism". In Germany, in ad<lition to Kant, Fichte, and other Monistic Iclealists, we find Lotze and Herbart advocating realistic forms of Spiritualism. In England, among the best-known advocates of