Materialism, the theory which, denying the independent existence of spirit, resolves everything within the sphere of being into matter, or into the operation and the effect of the operation of forces latent in it, or into the negative and positive interaction of mere material forces, to the exclusion of intelligent purpose and design.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Matanza * Mather, Cotton