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I. Origin and Character: Tract societies are associations for the dissemination of brief popular religious treatises, especially on present-day problems and questions of personal life, among wider circles than are immediately reached by the Church, thus seeking to counteract the circulation among the masses of tenets and principles either meager in faith or hostile to Christianity. The tract may be said to begin with the Reformation, as in Luther's ninety-five theses of 1517, which he followed with a long series of pamphlets, being imitated in this respect by other German, Swiss, and French Reformers. Later, English Puritans and Methodists, German pietists, and Moravians affected the circulation of tracts; but it was especially the Augsburg senior Johann Urlsperger and the English Hannah More, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, who were responsible for the formation of tract societies. In 1782 the former established at Basel the Deutsche Christentumsgesellschaft to unite Christians against the rationalism of the period; while the latter, after having combated French atheism by tracts which reached a circulation of 2,000,000, found her work carried on by the Edinburgh Tract Society (founded in 1796) and the London Religious Tract Society (established in 1799). On the model, and partly with the aid, of the latter organization, associations were soon formed in a number of places for the circulation of tracts, their work being carried on more or less in connection with home missions.

II. In Germany: The most important tract societies in Germany are as follows: Christlicher Verein im niirdlichen Deutschland (Eisleben, 1811); Wupperthaler Traktatgesellschaft (Wupperthal, 1814); Hauptverein fur christliche Erbauungsschriften in den preussischen Staaten (Berlin, 1814); Niedersachsische Gesellschaft zur Verbreitung christlicher Erbauungsschriften (Hamburg, 1820); Evangelische Gesellschaft (Stuttgart, 1832); Evangelische Bucherstiftung in Stuttgart, or Calwer Verein (Calw, 1833); Evangelische Gesellschaft in Strassburg (Strasburg, 1834); Verein zur Verbreitung christlicher Schriften (Basel, 1834); Agentur des Rauhen Hauses (Hamburg, 1842); Evangelischer Biicherverein (Berlin, 1845); Evangelische Gesellschaft fur Deutschland (Elberfeld, 1.848); Evangelischer Verein fur die protestantische Pfalz (1848); Niirnberger evangelischer Yerein fur innere Mission (Nuremberg, 1850); Schriftenabteilung der Gesellschaft fur innere Mission im Sinne der lutherischen Kirche (1850); Christlicher Kolportageverein in Baden (1867); Nassauischer Kolportageverein (Herborn, 1873); Deutsche evangelische Traktatgesellschaft (Berlin, 1879); and Christlicher Zeitschriftenverein (Berlin, 1880). The circulation of pfennig sermons begun by the Berlin city mission in 1881 serves a like purpose; the Verein fur christliche Yolksbildung far Rhein-

land and Westfalen (Cologne, 1882); and the

Deutsche Zentralstelle zur Forderung der Volks

und Jugendlektiire (Hamburg, 1905), and the pop

ularly scientific Lehr and Wehr furs deutsche Volk

(Hamburg, 1904 sqq.). The chief problems of Ger

man tract societies at the present time are, on the

one hand, popular demonstration of the applica

bility of the Gospel to the problems of social and

economic life to controvert the false glamour of So

cial Democracy, and, on the other hand, the de

fense of Christianity against rationalistic criticism

and the theories of evolutionistic monism. The

circulation of tracts is carried on chiefly by branch

establishments of the societies and by colporteurs;

and the desired results are best attained on the

basis of personal acquaintance and with regard to

the requirements of each case, inferior results being

gained by promiscuous distribution of religious

literature. (H. RAHLENBECK.)

III. In Great Britain.-1. The Religious Tract Society: The great development of missionary interest which marked the last years of the eighteenth century led in 1799 to the formation by George

1. Origin Burder and others of the Religious

and De- Tract Society. Their act was the more

velopment. fitful in the case of Christian litera

ture as, in 1804, its founders also orig

inated the British and Foreign Bible Society. Start

ing with the production of simple tracts for home

use, the society's work rapidly developed. The

production of books and periodicals was added;

work was undertaken for Roman Catholic countries

on the continent of Europe; and, as early as the

year 1814, assistance was given to Christian litera

ture for China on the appeal of Drs. William Milne

and Robert Morrison (qq.v.); while other parts of

the heathen and Mohammedan world rapidly came

under the society's influence. Its present opera

tions extend to every quarter of the globe, the so

ciety continuing to be an agency for producing Chris

tian literature in or for the mission fields of the

world. So far it has used 272 languages and dia

lects in the course of this work, and every year sees

some addition to this total.

Placing first its original work of producing English tracts, the society still provides literature of this type for all classes of the community. Its Pres-

2. Its ent Day Tracts and its Tracts for the

Tracts. Threes, written by men of learning and

position in the churches, address them

selves to the greater problems of theological criti

cism and social life. In its biographical series the

lives of men and women eminent in the Christian

Church of all ages are treated by writers of position.

The necessity of producing special tracts for dis

tribution among men originated its series of Letters

to My Brothers and The Men's Own. Much of tract

distribution being conducted upon a regular sys

tem, requiring a constant supply of new tracts,