Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/258

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SPIRE


220


SPIRIT


18y6). The youth and development of Spinoza is described iu detail by Dunin-Borkowski, Der junge De Spinoza, Leben u.

Werdegang im Lichte der Weltphitosophie (Munater, 1910).

Other biographies which also contain expositions of the ethical system are; Pollock, Spinoza, His Life, and Philosophy (2nd e'd., London. 1899); Willis. B.rfe Spinoza, His Life, Correspon- dence and Ethics (2nd ed., London. 1870); Kuno Fischek. Spinozas Leben. Werke und Lehre (5th ed., Heidelberg, 1909); CoucHouD, Benolt de Spinoza (Paris. 1902); Brl'nschvico, Spinoza (2nd ed., Paris, 1906). Wolf has lately issued an English translation of the Korle Verharuleling, with a life of Spinoza (London. 1910).

There are innumerable presentations of Spinoza's theories; among those of earlier times the works of BouLAlNyiLLiEHa, J.vcOBi, the two SiGw.iRTS. Tbendelenburq. and Boebmer are very readable. Later works are: Mabtineau, A Study of Spinoza (2nd ed.. London. 1899); Caibd, Spinoza (cheap ed., London, 1903); loncum. A Stuiiy of the Ethics of Spinoza (Oxford, 1901); Duff, Spinoza's Political and Ethical Philosophy (Glas- gow 1903); PicToN, Spinoza, a Handbook to the Ethics (London, 1907) ; CAMERER.Dic Lehre Spinozas (l&n) ; Spinoza und Schleier- macher (Stuttgart, 1903); Wixdelbasd in his history of modern philosophy. Very important for Spinoza's teaching is Brunneb, Die Lehre von den Geistigen und mm Volke, I, pt. II (Berlm, 1908). . ,

Of other important monographs there can only be mentioned; FtJLLERTON, On Spinozistic Immorlality (Philadelphia, 1899); Delbos, Le probl'eme moral dans la philosophie de Spinoza (Paris. 1893); Worms. La morale de Spinoza (Paris. 1891); Rivaud. Les notions d'essence et d'eiistence dans la philos. de Spinoza (Paris. 1906) ; Leon. Les elements Cart^siens de la doctrine Spinn- ziste (Paris, 1907); Freudenthal, Spinoza und die Scholastik (Leipzig, 1887). 83. 138. one of the philosophical essays dedicated to W. ZcUer; Ludwig Steix. Leibniz und Spinoza (Berlin. 1890); Joel, BeitrSge zur Gesrhirhte der Philosophie (2 vols.. Breslau. 1876). important for the history of the development of Spinoza; Baltzer, Spinozas Enluicklungsgang (Kiel. 1888): Volkelt. ParUheismus und Imlicidualismus im System Spinozas (Leipzig. 1872) ; ZniAWSKi. Das Problem der Kausalitst bei Spinoza (Berne. 1899); GebhaRDT, Spinozas Abhandlung Uber die Verbesserung des Verstandes (Heidelberg. 1905); Zeitschel. Erkenntnislehre Spinozas (Leipzig. 1889); RiCHTER. Der Willensbegriff in der Lehre Spinozas (Leipzig. 1898); Busolt. Die Grundzuge der Erkenninistheorie und Metaphysik Spinozas (Berlin, 1875); Becher, Der Begriff des AUributs bei Spinoza (Halle, 1905). There are also a large number of more or less valuable essays in the Revue de Melaphysique el de Morale, from 1900 in the Annfe philosophique; also in the Archir fur Geschichte der Philosophie, in Zeitschrift far Philosophic und philosophische Krilik. in Vier- teljahTsschrift 'u- : ■ ■ -' ■■'J.v/ir PHI,m,ph,r: -.W, .„v(r-.| m Mind, m Not. - • ■ " 'l/"ir,„<l.m Tn^h^'- - H '>■>:-

geerte, in Reun ' • , -. iii S'nunn n ■ 1/ .

especially vol. I \\r\,."'-'l ~'i-. ;H"1 in rh.-.sr, ■(, ■'/;-

stig, wetenschappclijK m Ull>:fkuitdig gehied, no. -l.s. 4bi) .-mm-

Stan. Dunin Borkowski.

Spire (A. S. spir, "a stalk", "shoot"), a tapering construction, in plan conical, or pyramidal, or octag- onal, or hexagonal, crowning a steeple or tower, or surmounting a building, and usually developed from the cornice; often pierced by ornamental openings and, where there were ribs, enriched with crockets. Sometimes an open lantern was interposed between the steeple, tower, or roof and the spire. On the Con- tinent the architects aimed to make the steeple and spire one, merging them into each other, while m Eng- land they openly confessed it was a separate structure by m:isking its point of origin behind a plain or pierced IKirapet, or ornamental battlements. A spire prop- erly belongs to Pointed architecture and hence has never been fully developed except in Gothic buildings. As early as the twelfth centurj' they took on different forms, and almost everywhere, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centun,', became the terminating con- struction of everj- church steeple, tower, or lantern, and also tho.se of secular buildings, more especially in (Germany and France. Their decorative value was verj- great, more particularly in varying and enriching the sky-line of the buildings which they cro^vned, and by the numerous variations of forms and variety of types employed. Tlicse fonns ranged from such sim- ple ex;imi)lcs ;ls that surmounting the south lower of Chartres Cathedrel to that of Burgos, where the whole structure is an openwork of tracery. In Eng- land Norman churclies were without spires, but with the coming in of Early English short ones were intro- duced; Decorated Gothic calh^d for mucli higher ones, and the Perpendicular still liighcr. The earlier spires were generally built of timber, and they were always 80 when the building was roofed with wood.


These early timber spires were, as a rule, not very tall, but later they reached a greater elevation; that which crowned old St. Paul's in London is said to have been 527 feet in height. The most lofty spires now in existence — such as those of Salisbur>', Coven- try, and Norwich — are all of stone. In Central England there are many, and in fact wherever suitable stone w;is easily obtainable. In the north of England, however, in Scotland, and in Wales among the mountains the bell-gable takes the place of a spire, no doubt because the large area of the thinly populated par- ishes made it necessary to keep the bells uncovered, so that they might be more widely heard. The most beautiful examples of existing spires are to be seen at Char- tres, Reims, Laon, Freiburg, Ratisbon, Cologne, Antwerp, V'ienna, Burgos, and Salis- bury. On some of these buildings there are several spires, in many instances built at different periods: the south spire of Chartres, culminating in a pinnacle 350 feet above the ground, was erected in 1175, while the north spire, with its apex 380 feet above the ground, was not finished until 1513. The so-called spires of the Renaissance and those built by Sir Christopher Wren are not true spires, but merely steeples terminating ir. a point.

Caryl Coleman.


Wjni


Spires.

CESE OF.


See Speter, Dio-


Spirit (Lat. spiritujs, spi- rare, "to breathe"; Gk. irveSfui, Sai/jLoiy; Fr. esprit; Ger. Gcisl.) One Spike of the Vo-

. ,1 1 ., TIVKIRCHE, \ lENNA

As these names snow, trie Fehstel

principle of life was often repre- sented under the figure of a breath or air. The breath is the most obvious symptom of hfe, its cessation the invariable mark of death; invisible and impalpable, it stands for the unseen mysterious force behind the vital processes. Accordingly wc fintl the word "spirit" used in several different but allied senses: (1) as signifying a living, intelligent, incorporeal being, such as the soul; ("2) as the fiery essence or breath (the Stoic pncuma) which was supposed to be the universal vital force; (3) as signifying some re- fined form of bodily substance, a fluid believeil to act a.s a medium between mind and the grosser matter of the body. The hypothesis of "spirits" in this sense was familiar to the Scholastic physicists. Al- bertus Magnus distinguished corporeal and incor- poreal spirits, and long after the Scholastic age, in fact, down to the end of the eighteenth century, "animal spirits", "vital spirits", "natural spirits" were acknowledged agencies in all physiological plienomena (cf. Vesalius, Descartes, Harvey, Eras- nuis Darwin, etc.). "Magnetic" spirits were em- ployed by Mesmer in his theory in very much the same way as modern Spiritists invoke the "ether" of the physicists.

In Psychology, "spirit" is used (with the adjec- tive "spiritual") to denote all that belongs to our higher hfc of reason, art, morality, and rehgion as