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.