Also 5–6 tracte. [App. abbreviated from L. tractātus TRACTATE; not in any other lang.]
I. † 1. Literary treatment or discussion. Obs. rare.
In some instances difficult to separate from sense 2.
[1432–50: see 2.]
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 245. It was our part to comprise in few words such things as required a severall tract.
1659. Bp. Walton, Consid. Considered, 14. They do assert and prove the plain contrary, and that not obiter, or by the by, but ex professo, in full tracts.
2. A book or written work treating of some particular topic; a treatise; a written or printed discourse or dissertation: TRACTATE sb. 1. Now rare in general sense.
Formerly often applied to what would now be called ‘books.’
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 257. For cause that a generalle tracte [L. tractatus generalis; Trevisa, tretysis ful and general] of the iiij. principalle realmes afore seide…, dothe require a large processe. Ibid., III. 219. The philosophres that were diuines … laborede and made tractes of God [L. de Deo tractaverunt; Trevisa, þei treted of God].
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1663), 84. This present Tract of mine is not made for any ostentation.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. (1634), 340. Palastina it selfe is but a Province, as I have noted in the beginning of this Tract.
a. 1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. ii. 69. The scope and end of my business in this Tract.
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ. I. 38. In the course of the seventeenth century, a more than usual number of tracts were published on commercial and economical subjects. Ibid. (1845), Taxation, II. iv. (1854), 183. Mr. Howlett … has made some statements in his valuable tract on tithe.
b. Applied to a division of a book or literary work, treating of a separate subject or branch. rare.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. iii. § 3. Three books they tell us of, which Zertoost received by Revelation, or rather one book, consisting of three severall tracts, whereof the first [etc.].
1891. J. E. H. Thomson, Bks. which influenced our Lord, I. x. 177. The Mishna is divided into six sections, each of these into ten tracts on an average, or sixty-one in all.
3. In later use: A short pamphlet on some religious, political, or other topic, suitable for distribution or for purposes of propaganda.
[1762. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 545/2. This little tract affords prescriptions for the soul.]
1806, 1816. [see c].
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, ix. Whose sister, Lady Emily, wrote those sweet tracts, ‘The Sailor’s True Binnacle,’ and ‘The Applewoman of Finchley Common.’
1851. Kingsley, Lett., in Life (1879), I. ix. 237. The barbarians … got into their addle pates that we were emissaries of Mazzini and Co. distributing political tracts.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxx. Whether he only distributes tracts with condescending words.
1885. G. Meredith, Diana, xviii. Am I really as dull as a tract, my dear?
1911. A. R. Buckland, in Encycl. Brit., XXVII. 177/2. A tract is understood to be brief and rather argumentative than educational.
Mod. The British Museum library contains an immense collection of Civil War tracts.
b. Tracts for the Times: the title of a series of pamphlets on theological and ecclesiastical topics (known also as the Oxford Tracts, or simply the Tracts) started by J. H. Newman, and published at Oxford 1833–1841, on the doctrines of which the Tractarian movement was based.
The earlier of these were, in accordance with their title, brief pamphlets; but some of the later, e.g., that of Pusey on Baptism, were extended treatises, tracts in sense 2. The aim of the series was ‘to arrest the advance of Liberalism in religious thought, and to revive’ what the writers held to be ‘the true conception of the relation of the Church of England to the Catholic Church at large’ (Churchman’s Guide). The last Tract, No. 90, by J. H. Newman, ‘On Certain Passages in the XXXIX Articles,’ ‘called forth a storm of reprobation; at the instance of Four Tutors, the Heads of the Oxford Colleges pronounced censure upon the author,’ and at the request of the Bishop of Oxford the publication of the Tracts ceased. In the sequel, many who sympathized with the teaching of the Tracts (including at length Newman himself) seceded to the Church of Rome.
1834. (title) Tracts for the Times. By Members of the University of Oxford.
1868. Sir J. T. Coleridge, Mem. Keble, xii. (1870), 276. It was Mr. Benson … who gave the authors and favourers of the Tracts the perfectly inoffensive name of Tractarian.
1881. Froude, Short Stud., Ser. IV. (1883), 175. These were the views which we used to hear when the Tracts were first beginning.
1893. Liddon, etc., Life Pusey, I. xii. 277. The first Tracts are dated at the beginning of September (1833). They were generally short, several keeping within the suggested limit of four pages: they were chiefly concerned with the constitution, ordinances, and services of the Church.
c. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 3) tract-distributing adj., distribution, -led adj., society; (in sense 3 b, with capital T) Tract divine, doctrine, man, movement, system, -writer.
1806. W. L. Bowles, Banwell Hill, II. 360. The tract-led Miss, Who trots to every Bethel club.
1816. ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, VIII. Argt. 18. Let them, if they perceive impiety, Transmit it to the Tract Society.
1841. S. Wilberforce, Lett., 30 March, in Ashwell, Life, I. vi. 217. You know my dread of the ‘Tract’ doctrine of Reserve.
1843. Chr. Lady’s Mag., XX. 211. The opinions of Oxford-tract men … upon the divine efficacy of Sacraments. Ibid., 271. The pernicious errors broached…, by the Tract-writers of Oxford.
1846. D. Wilson, Exp. Lect. Col., ii. 20, note. The Tract divines add to the three essentials required in the XIXth article a fourth.
1869. W. P. Mackay, Grace & Truth (1875), 43. Tract-distributors and pick-pockets.
1882. Ogilvie, s.v., In this sense the word is frequently adjectivally used; as, tract society,… tract distribution, etc.
1893. Liddon, etc., Life Pusey, I. xii. 414. It was natural for the Tract-writers to honour the Fathers of the Church.
II. † 4. a. Negotiation, treating; a treaty. (Cf. TRACTATE sb. 2.) b. Trade, traffic [cf. Pg. trato dealing, trade]. Obs. rare.
1501. in Lett. Rich. III. & Hen. VII. (Rolls), I. 135. The kinges majestie had sent to him his seal for tract of pais bytwixt his grace and H. Ibid. (1502), 147. A tracte of accorde.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. i. 3. They had beene in the Cayro, and understoode there much newes of Ormuse, and of theyr tract had with and into the Indies.
