Manifold were the methods adopted at the beginning, and various schemes being from time to time discussed, the Society pursued diversified forms of action, according to circumstances. It was primarily a Book and Tract Society. The establishment of parochial libraries in America to aid the work of the Clergy, and of lending catechetical libraries in market towns of this kingdom, together with the distribution of good books, as the Society should direct, are amongst the decisions mentioned in the minutes. At an early period we find in its list of publications, _Bradford on Regeneration_, _Scougal’s Life of God in the Soul of Man_, _Melmoth’s Great Importance of a Religious Life_, and _Bull’s Corruptions of the Church of Rome_. Thirty thousand copies of _The Soldier’s Monitor_ were sent to the army in Holland. Admiral Benbow and Sir George Rooke caused similar tracts to be circulated throughout the fleet; and _Cautions to Watermen_ were sent down to the West for distribution amongst people employed on rivers and canals. It was also a School Society upon Church principles. Catechetical schools in and about London received attention; and before the end of the year 1699 it was reported that in Whitechapel, Poplar, St. Martin’s, Cripplegate, Shadwell, Shoreditch, and Bishopsgate, they had been set up through the Society’s operations. Other similar efforts were made, as appears from a report by Lord Guildford, as to teaching paupers in workhouses and instructing them in the Catechism; and further, it may be stated that resolutions were passed to induce the parents of scholars to attend catechetical lectures. It is also worth noticing, as a curiosity, that Mr. Symons, schoolmaster at Cripplegate, discovered a secret, by which he could teach twenty or thirty boys the alphabet in a day. Allusions occur, in the months of July and August, 1699, to efforts at instruction in the parish of St. George’s, Southwark, being “much obstructed,” when it was ordered that the agents should immediately treat with a schoolmaster, the Society to ensure him one half-year’s pay; but the measure was postponed in hopes of an agreement with the parish officers, who seemed to have thrown difficulties in the way. [Sidenote: RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.] Whilst the promotion of Christian knowledge, by means of publications and schools, formed the main object of the Society, other purposes were incidentally contemplated, and we find these good men anticipating the labours of John Howard by seeking to improve the state of prisons, and the modern condemnation of duelling, by giving thanks to Sir John Phillips for his noble Christian example in refusing a challenge. Numerous references occur in the earliest proceedings to efforts for the conversion of Quakers, and, as they are so singular, they claim notice and require explanation.