350 RELIGIOUS AGENCIES 



other important reasons great libraries accept every pamphlet 

 offered and religiously preserve them. 



There is a particular aptitude in the tract and the pamphlet for 

 the propagation of practical religion as distinguished from doctrinal. 

 John Wesley extended the Methodist movement to such a degree 

 by the use of the printing press, particularly in the circulation of 

 sermons in tracts and pamphlets, that it is a matter of reasonable 

 doubt whether without it he could have insured the permanency 

 of the movement. When the issue arose between him and George 

 Whitefield as to the truth of their respective positions, the one 

 being Arminian and the other Calvinistic, both resorted to pam- 

 phlets. Whitefield, not skillful in composition, being supported 

 by Toplady, Richard, and Roland Hill, and many others, was 

 unable to cope with Wesley with respect to propagandism, because 

 of the superior facilities early secured by the latter of producing 

 and circulating tracts, and because of his supporting his doctrinal 

 tracts by those on practical religion. By this means, both in the 

 hearts and heads of his people, he incorporated their religious 

 experiences with their doctrinal views more fully than perhaps 

 any other religious reformer. He learned much upon this subject 

 from the methods of Martin Luther, who not only produced an 

 extraordinary number of pamphlets, but made use of illustration 

 to a degree hardly surpassed by the illustrated papers of the 

 present day. 



It is well known that the pamphlet gave rise to the newspaper, 

 and the more thorough treatises upon language have extracted 

 corroborative passages from the literature current at the times 

 prior to the rise of the periodical press. In the sixteenth century 

 the pamphlets contained " news ballads " and were also known as 

 news books. There is a proclamation of Charles I, which relates to 

 the " suppressing the printing and publishing of unlicensed news 

 books and pamphlets of news." 



The Book 



To comprehend fully the function of the book it must be noted 

 that a book gives time for study, meditation, and review; it 

 transmits knowledge from generation to generation, and thus 

 makes it possible for the later born population to be better informed 

 at ten years of age than they could be at eighty years of age if 

 without books. Oral tradition, with the aid of monuments and 

 tablets, did much, but little in comparison with what is accom- 

 plished by books. 



As distinguished from the pamphlet the book conveys more 

 knowledge, elaborates arguments, introduces details, and answers 



