60 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



that he did not believe in tracts. I do, and I 

 have reason for doing so, for I know that my 

 people by far the most part at all events read 

 them and are glad to have them, and, I cannot 

 doubt, with more or less profit. 



"What is a tract but a poor man's book? He 

 cannot read for he has not time, as the rich have 

 large folios, quartos, or octavos ; nor are they within 

 his means to buy, nor could he understand them 

 for the most part if they were. But a tract he not 

 only can but does read, and as numbers of them 

 have been written by the very ablest and best men 

 in the country, they are worth reading. I can truly 

 say that I have read very many of them myself with 

 pleasure, and I hope with profit. It seems to me 

 simply cruel not to make all the use one possibly 

 can of them." 



In one instance at least the giving away of a few 

 tracts had a far-reaching result. This was in the 

 case of the late Mrs. Smythies, the philanthropic 

 founder of the Band of Mercy movement, whom 

 he had the pleasure of meeting some forty years 

 before she died. He handed to her on that occa- 

 sion a few leaflets of the Royal Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and begged her 

 to read them. She did so, and from that time 

 forward became an ardent supporter of the good 

 cause of humanity to animals. In alluding to this 

 incident the editor of the British Workman re- 

 marked : " Little did the esteemed rector of Nun- 

 burnholme dream of the widespread influence in 



