On The Art of Reading

On The Art of Reading

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Title: On The Art of Reading
Author: Arthur Quiller-Couch
Release Date: August 22, 2005 [EBook #16579]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ART OF READING ***

Produced by James Tenison

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON:
BENTLEY HOUSE NEW YORK. TORONTO, BOMBAY
CALCUTTA. MADRAS:
MACMILLAN TOKYO: MARUZEN COMPANY LTD

All rights reserved
Copyrighted in the United States of America by G. P. Putnam's Sons
All rights reserved
On The Art of Reading
By
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1939

TO H. F. S. and H. M. C.
First edition 1920 reprinted 1920,1921 Pocket edition 1924 reprinted
1925, 1928, 1933, 1939

PREFACE
The following twelve lectures have this much in common with a
previous twelve published in 1916 under the title "On the Art of
Writing"--they form no compact treatise but present their central idea
as I was compelled at the time to enforce it, amid the dust of
skirmishing with opponents and with practical difficulties.
They cover--and to some extent, by reflection, chronicle--a period
during which a few friends, who had an idea and believed in it, were
fighting to establish the present English Tripos at Cambridge. In the
end we carried our proposals without a vote: but the opposition was
stiff for a while; and I feared, on starting to read over these pages for
press, that they might be too occasional and disputatious. I am happy to
think that, on the whole, they are not; and that the reader, though he

may wonder at its discursiveness, will find the argument pretty free
from polemic. Any one who has inherited a library of 17th century
theology will agree with me that, of all dust, the ashes of dead
controversies afford the driest.
And after all, and though it be well worth while to strive that the study
of English (of our own literature, and of the art of using our own
language, in speech or in writing, to the best purpose) shall take an
honourable place among the Schools of a great University, that the
other fair sisters of learning shall
Ope for thee their queenly circle ...
it is not in our Universities that the general redemption of English will
be won; nor need a mistake here or there, at Oxford or Cambridge or
London, prove fatal. We make our discoveries through our mistakes:
we watch one another's success: and where there is freedom to
experiment there is hope to improve. A youth who can command
means to enter a University can usually command some range in
choosing which University it shall be. If Cambridge cannot supply
what he wants, or if our standard of training be low in comparison with
that of Oxford, or of London or of Manchester, the pressure of neglect
will soon recall us to our senses.
_The real battle for English lies in our Elementary Schools, and in the
training of our Elementary Teachers._ It is there that the foundations of
a sound national teaching in English will have to be laid, as it is there
that a wrong trend will lead to incurable issues. For the poor child has
no choice of Schools, and the elementary teacher, whatever his
individual gifts, will work under a yoke imposed upon him by
Whitehall. I devoutly trust that Whitehall will make the yoke easy and
adaptable while insisting that the chariot must be drawn.
I foresee, then, these lectures condemned as the utterances of a man
who, occupying a Chair, has contrived to fall betwixt two stools. My
thoughts have too often strayed from my audience in a University
theatre away to remote rural class-rooms where the hungry sheep look
up and are not fed; to piteous groups of urchins standing at attention

and chanting "The Wreck of the Hesperus" in unison. Yet to these,
being tied to the place and the occasion, I have brought no real help.
A man has to perform his task as it comes. But I must say this in
conclusion. Could I wipe these lectures out and re-write them in hope
to benefit my countrymen in general, I should begin and end upon the
text to be found in the twelfth and last--that a liberal education is not an
appendage to be purchased by a few: that Humanism is, rather, a
quality which can, and should, condition all our teaching; which can,
and should, be