SPIRITUALIST. - One who occupies himself with spiritualism; a partisan of
spiritualism. Whoever believes that there is in the universe something which is not
matter is a spiritualist, but spiritualism does not necessarily imply a belief in the
manifestations of spirits. Every spiritist is necessarily a spiritualist, but every
spiritualist is not necessarily a spiritist; the materialist is neither the one nor the other.
We say, "the spiritualist philosophy," as the antithesis of "theoretic materialism;" "A
work embodying spiritualist ideas," as the opposite of "a work embodying materialistic
ideas." We say, "Spiritist manifestations are produced by the action of spirits on
matter;" "spiritist morality is the result of teachings given by spirits."
"There are
spiritualists who ridicule the spiritist belief."
In these examples, the employment of the word spiritualist for spiritist would
produce confusion.
