With reference to incorporeal beings, it denotes (except in the
phrase "the Holy Ghost") the reappearance of the dead in disembodied form.
_Spirit_ may denote a variety of incorporeal beings--among them
angels, fairies (devoid of moral nature), and personalities returned from
the grave and manifested--seldom visibly--through spiritualistic tappings
and the like. "The superstitious natives thought the spirit of their chief
walked in the graveyard." "The ghost of the ancestors survives in the
descendants." "I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
Nowadays the chief difference between the two terms is
that _foe_ is the more used in poetry, _enemy_ in prose.
But _foe_ tends to express the more personal and implacable
hostility. We do not think of foes as bearing any friendship for each
other; enemies may, or they may be enemies in public affairs but downright
friends in their private relations. A man is hardly spoken of as being his
own foe, but he may be his own enemy. "For the moment we found ourselves
foes." "Suspicion is an enemy to content." "I paid a tribute to my friend,
who was the dominant personality among the enemy."
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