SPIRITUALISM 



SPITZBERGEN 



643 



As an example of the teaching of modern spiritual- 

 ism as actually- given through one of the most 

 intelligent spiritualists and most trustworthy 

 mediums, the following short passages from Spirit 

 Teachings, by M.A., Oxon., must here suffice: 

 'As the soul lives in the earth-life, so it goes to 

 the spirit-life. Its tastes, its predilections, its 

 habits, its antipathies, they are with it still. It is 

 not changed save in the accident of being freed 

 from the body. The soul that on earth has been 

 low in taste and impure in habit does not change 

 its nature by passing from the earth-sphere any 

 more than tne soul that has lieen truthful, pure, 

 and progressive becomes base and bad by death. 

 . . . The soul's character has been a daily, hourly 

 growth. It has not been an overlaying of the soul 

 with that which can be thrown off ; rather it has 

 been a weaving into the nature of the spirit that 

 which becomes part of itself, identified with its 

 nature, inseparable from its character. It is no 

 more possible that that character should be undone, 

 save by the slow process of obliteration, than that 

 a woven fabric should be rudely cut and the threads 

 remain intact. Nay more ; the soul has culti- 

 vated habite that have become so engrained as to 

 be essential parts of its individuality. The spirit 

 that has yielded to the lusts of a sensual body 

 becomes in the end their slave. It would not be 

 happy in the midxt of purity and refinement. It 

 would sigh for its old haunts and habits. They 

 are of its essence '(p. 13). 



'Immutable laws govern the results of deeds. 

 Deeds of good advance the spirit, whilst deeds of 

 evil degrade and retard it. Happiness is found in 

 progress, anil in gradual assimilation to the God- 

 like and perfect. The spirit of divine love animates 

 the acts, and in mutual blessing the spirits find 

 their happiness. For them there is no craving for 

 sluggish idleness, no cessation of desire for pro- 

 gressive advancement in knowledge. Human 

 passions and human needs and wishes are gone 

 with the body, and the spirit lives a life of purity, 

 progress, and love. Such is its heaven. We 

 know of no hell save that within the soul : a 

 hell which is fed by the flame of unpurified and 

 untamed lust and passion, which is kept alive by 

 remorse and agony of sorrow, which is fraught 

 with the pangs that spring unbidden from the 

 results of past misdeeds ; and from which the only 

 escape lies in retracing the steps and in cultivating 

 the qualities which bear fruit in love and know- 

 ledge of God ' (p. 77). 



'We may sum up man's highest duty as a 

 spiritual entity in the word Progress in know- 

 ledge of himself, and of all that makes for spiritual 

 development. The duty of man considered as an 

 intellectual being, possessed of mind and intelli- 

 gence, is summecf up in the word Culture in all its 

 infinite ramifications, not in one direction only, 

 but in all ; not for earthly aims alone, but for the 

 grand purpose of developing the faculties which 

 are to be perpetuated in endless development. 

 Man's duty to himself as a spirit incarnated in a 

 body of flesh is Purity in thought, word, and act. 

 In these three words, Progress, Culture, Purity, 

 we roughly sum up man's duty to himself as a 

 spiritual, an intellectual, and a corporeal being' 

 (p. 154). 



The following works have been consulted in writing 

 thin article : The History of the Supernatural, by Wil- 

 liam Howitt (2 ToU.); Footfall* on the Boundary of 

 Another Worlil and The Debatable Land between this 

 World and the Next, by Robert Dale Owen ; Planehette, 

 or the Despair of Science and The Proof Palpable of 

 Immortality, by Epes Sargent ; Report on Spiritualism 

 of the Committee of the Lomlon Dialectical Society ; 

 Primitive Christianity and Modern Spiritunliim, by 

 Eugene Crowe 11, M.D. ; Retearchct in the Phenomena of 



Spiritualism, by William Crookes, F.R.S.; Miracles and 

 Modern Spiritualism, by the present writer ; Transcen- 

 dental Physics, by Professor Zollner (trans, by C. C. 

 Massey ) ; Spirit Teachings, by M. A., Oxon. ; D. D. Home, 

 by Mme. Home. [On the other side see De Gaspaiin, 

 Dei Tables Tournantes (1854; trans, as Science verms 

 Spiritualism ) ; Myers, Science and a future Life ( 1893 ) ; 

 E. Hart, Hypnotism, Mesmerism, and the New Magic 

 (1893); A. Lang, Cock Lane and Common Sense (1894). 

 Ami AMMAI.M.U. \KTISM. HYPNOTISM, THEOSOPHY. ED. J 



Spitalfields, in north-east London, derives its 

 name from the hospital of St Mary, founded ( 1 197 ) 

 by Walter Brune and his wife Rosia. Silk manu- 

 factures were established here by French emigres 

 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ( 1685). 



Spi t iH'jul, a celebrated roadstead on the south 

 coast of England, and a favourite rendezvous of 

 the British navy, is the eastern division the 

 Solent (q. v. ) being the western of the strait that 

 separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland. 

 It is protected from all winds, except those from 

 the south-east, and its noted security warranted 

 the name which has been applied to it by sailors of 

 the 'king's bedchamber.' It receives its name 

 from the ' Spit,' a sandbank stretching south from 

 the Hampshire shore for 3 miles ; and it is 14 miles 

 long by about 4 miles in average breadth. Here 

 in 1797 the sailors of the Channel Fleet mutinied 

 for more liberal pay and allowances, which were 

 granted to them. Spithead has been strongly 

 defended since 1864 by fortifications completing 

 those of Portsmouth (q.v.). 



Spitz or Pomeranian Dog, the result of 

 a cross from the Esquimaux d6g, tne native dog of 

 the Arctic regions. The spitz is about the size 

 of the spaniel, with a sharp-pointed face and an 

 abundant white coat sometimes of great beauty. 

 Other colours are known, including black. As the 

 spitz is useful for no kind of work, and is generally 

 bad-tempered, this breed is rarely seen in England". 

 It is comparatively common in the United States, 

 where it is a favourite dog with Germans especially, 

 and where many of the deaths in the hot montns; 

 from hydrophobia have been due to its bite. 



Spitzbergen, a group of Arctic islands, lying 

 400 miles N. of Norway, and consisting of West 

 Spitzbergen (15,260 sq. in.), North-east Land (4040 

 sq. m.)> Stans Foreland (2210 sq. m.), the three 

 islands called King Charles Land or Wiche Island 

 (also identified with Gillis Land), Barents Land, 

 Prince Charles Foreland, and several smaller 

 islands and clusters of islets. The whole is ice- 

 bound, and there are magnificent glaciers on the 

 eastern shores, especially on North-east Land, 

 where Dickson's glacier has a length of more than 

 150 miles. A thick ice-sheet covers the whole of 

 the interior of the larger islands ; but several sharp 

 peaks whence the name Spitz ('needle-like ) 

 -bergen ('mountains') project above it. These 

 peaks are generally close upon 2000 feet in alti- 

 tude ; but one at least, Hornsund Tind, at the 

 southern extremity of West Spitzbergen, reaches 

 4560 feet, and on tne small island of Prince Charles 

 Foreland, lying to the west of West Spitzbergen, 

 there are peaks nearly 5000 feet in height. The 

 shores of West Spitzbergen, except on the east, are 

 deeply indented with fjords ; two, Ice Fjord, 

 stretching north-east and north, and Wiide Bay, 

 coming southwards, almost meet and cut the island 

 in two. The north-west shores of North-east Land 

 are also very much broken. The eastern shores 



fenerally are difficult of access, owing to their 

 eing swept by a cold Arctic current from the 

 north. But the Gulf Stream sweeps up along the 

 west side of the group, and very considerably 

 modifies the climate. The mean yearly climate 

 seems to vary from 10 to 16 F. in different years. 

 The vegetation, which was wonderfully luxuriant 



