Review or Reviews, 1/12106. 



THE BO OK OF THE MONTH, 



A PLEA FOR THE REVIVAL OF READING, WITH PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.' 



It may seem absurd to call this sixpenny pamphlet 

 the book of the month. But if it accomplishes its 

 purpose it will deserve the position of honour which 

 I have accorded it. It may not be the book of the 

 month for the outside world. But it is the book of 

 the month for the readers of " The Review of Re- 

 views." For it is their book. I have only edited it. 

 Its intrinsic importance lies in the fact that it em- 

 bodies the exjierience of some hundreds of readers 

 of " The Review," who contributed essays on the sub- 

 ject with which it deals, the result being, I do not 

 hesitate to say, some of the most interesting and 

 suggestive chapters ever published on the question 

 of books and their readers. Without more preface, 

 what is this "i)lea"? To whom is it addressed? 

 How is it sujiported, and what is the plan of cam- 

 paign which it foreshadows? 



TO ALL WHO L0\T; BOOKS. 



Let me answer these questions in their order. 

 This pam|ihlet is an appeal to all who love books. 

 It has a definite aim, and it propounds as definite a 

 scheme for attaining it. 



T want your help to carry out my scheme, so as to 

 double the number of book-readers in this country. 

 It can be done, and therefore it ought to be done. 

 And it would be done if we could but rid ourselves 

 of the idea that the chief work to be done is to write 

 new books, whereas the most important and honour- 

 able task is to bring the books which already exist 

 into the homes and hearts of our people. 



It is no doubt a humble function, that of the 

 publisher or distributer; but, humble though it be, it 

 may be more useful than that of the author. 



If we could but get it into our minds that all that 

 has been most helpful and most inspiring and most 

 energising and most con.soling in our own lives prac- 

 tically dees not exist for the majority of our fellow- 

 men, 'we should begin to discern how vast a field 

 of honourable and useful labour lies open before us. 

 We have, as it were, to re-create Shakespeare, Mil- 

 ton, Scott. Ryron. Shelley, Spenser, Burns and 

 Wordsworth for our fellow-men; we have to bring 

 them into their world. 



Within a certain range, narrower or wider as the 

 case may be, it depends upon us, and us alone, 

 whether the great authors of our race shall exist or 

 shall not exist in the minds of manv of our neigh- 

 bours. For them the Immortals slumber in the grave 

 of oblivion ; it is we alone, each for our own circle, 

 who can raise them from the tomb and set them forth 

 in all their original splendour before the eyes of our 

 fellows. The service is not oije which brings with it 



• '' A Plea for tl;e Revival of Beading:, witli Plan of Cam- 

 paign." by W. T. Steail. I'rite sixpence. 39 Wliitefriars- 

 steet, London, E.G. 



any fame commensurate with its usefulness. But 

 that is the kind of work that needs to be done. 

 Will you help me to help you to do it? 



THE NEED FOE A REVIVAL OF READING. 

 It is a thing quite beyond the pale of dispute that 

 the habit of reading books is one of the most useful 

 acquired bv mankind. Yet it is largely falling into 

 desuetude.' The newspaper habit, the magazine 

 habit, the circulating library habits are hustling it 

 out of existence, to the no small detriment of the 

 moral and intellectual well-being of the coming race. 

 An illustration of this is the dying out of the habit 

 of family prayers, which prayers did at least 

 familiarise the whole of the members of the house- 

 hold, from the maid-of-all-the-work to the master, 

 with a noble and inspiring literature, elevated in 

 style, with a wide and noble vocabulary. 



It is unnecessary here to discuss why this fount 

 of popular literary 'culture is drying up. The fact 

 remains. Family singing has largely gone the w-ay 

 of family Bible reading and family prayer, and we 

 are all the poorer for the change. In place of the 

 sublimest forms of literary expression we have the 

 telegram, the City article, the scarehead, and the 

 leading article. That -is what has replaced the 

 family rending of the Scriptures. It may palpitate 

 with actualitv. It can hardly be said to be lite- 

 rature. But the newspaper, both here and else- 

 where, constitutes the only literary pabulum of 

 the majority of men. In place of the daily reading, 

 with prayers and psalms, of sacred books we have 

 substituted the newspaper, the miscellany, and the 

 novel. But even the worst skimmer of newspapers 

 or bolter of novels is a man of letters comjiared wit'" 

 millions w'ho never look at a printed page from year's 

 end to year's end except to see the odds or to learn 

 the result of a horserace. There is ample need for a 

 vigorous effort to revive and extend the love of read- 

 ing good books amongst the mi 11 inns of the English- 

 speaking world. 



HOW WE COME TO LOVE EKAUING. 



The love for the reading of books is an acquired 

 taste. Naturally no human being loves to read 

 books, for no human being in a state of nature can 

 read at all. To acquire the art of reading print is 

 a long and difficult oi)eration, which the child, if 

 If ft to him.self, will never undertake. 



For the great majority of the human race, even in 

 England, the taste for reading books has never been 

 acquired. The irksomeness of the reading-les.son 

 causes reading to be as distasteful as arithmetic. 

 Hence a terrible wastage of the results of our na- 

 tional education in the critical years that follow 

 school-time. 



In order to show how best to inculcate this vast 



