6i: 



The Review of Reviews. 



December 1, 1906. 



maioritv that reads no books with the love of read- 

 ing,', the surest and simplest guide is to ask the 

 minority who do lo\e books how they acquired the 

 taste. About one hundred autobiographical papers 

 describing how their authors came to like reading lie 

 1 lefore me. They afford a very useful and absolutely 

 authentic record from real life as to the secret, the 

 open secret, of how men and women learn to love 

 books. 



The first great lesson we learn from these papers 

 is that elocution, good reading aloud, is the surest, 

 simplest, and speediest way of awakening a love of 

 reading in the average human being. 



The second lesson is that, after the spoken voice, 

 the pictured page is that which most effectively pro- 

 motes the habit of reading books. It sets up a 

 curiosity which reading alone can satisfy. 



Elocution and illustrations, therefore, are the two 

 main instruments by w'hich the Reading Revival must 

 be promoted, and to these must be added a third, 

 which combines elocution and illustration with the 

 charm of dramatic representation. 



THE COMMUNION OF READERS. 



If anything is to be done on a»comprehensive and 

 practical scale to create a taste for reading among 

 the masses who at present do not read, the task can 

 only be accomplished by adopting the methods and 

 acting on the principles which the Church in all 

 ages has employed for the purposes of attaining its 

 own ends. Those who are readers amongst us, those 

 to whom books have come to he their most cherished 

 companions, and. as it were, the angel ministrants of 

 higher and better world, form what may be called 

 the Church of the Readers. As such, our first duty' 

 is to recognise what you may call the Communion, 

 not of Saints, but of Readers. 



This Brotherhood of Readers, having recognised 

 its existence and its obligations to the non-reading 

 community, should set to work to fulfil the duty 

 which they owe to their brothers by arousing them to 

 a sense of the advantages they are losing by their 

 apathetic indifference and contented ignorance. 



When the Church is very much in earnest about 

 making an attack upon the forces of the world, the 

 flesh and the devil, there is no method that has been 

 so proved and tested and followed with such success 

 as that of holding Combined Mission Services or 

 attempting to run a Revival. 



, What I propose is the application of all that is 

 best in revivalism to the task of reviving interesting 

 books, of increasing the number of readers, and, in 

 short, of introducing the greatest number of our 

 fellow-countrymen who are now wandering in the 

 wilderness in ignorance of the promised land, into 

 the literary Canaan which is spread out before them, 

 but which they refuse to enter. 



HOW TO WORK A READING REAHVAL. 



How then should this reading Revival be worked? 

 The Plan of Campaign proposed for a Reading Re- 

 vival demands: — 



(i) A living centre, whether of one person or of a 

 committee, to every district to undert.ike 

 the work. 

 (2) A combined effort on the part of all lovers and 

 readers of books to realise the following 

 ideal : 

 (a) A Public Library and Reading Room in 



every district ; 

 (h) .\ Library in every School ; 

 {c) The Utilisation of the Drama; 

 (d) A Lads' and Lasses' Library ; and 

 ((?) A Library in every Home. 



Given this living centre or Committee of the Com- 

 munion of Readers in any town or district, the fol- 

 lowing suggestions are made for a Reading ^lission : 



The committee would summon a conference to 

 which all the ministers of the town and all those 

 interested in reading would be invited. To the con- 

 ference thus summoned it would be proposed to 

 devote one week, say in the early autumn, for a 

 special mission week in connection with the revival 

 and extension of the taste for reading. On the 

 Sunday special sermons should be preached in all 

 places of worship, which would be reported in the 

 local papers next morning, calling attention to the 

 religious significance of the movement which uas 

 about to be made on purely secular grounds to 

 promote reading in the town. If the town were 

 compact and not scattered, all denominations, clubs, 

 literary scjcieties, etc., might unite in a series of, say, 

 four meetings, to be held Monday, Tuesday. Wed- 

 nesday and Thursday, for the special purpose of in- 

 creasing the number of readers in the community ; 

 or in cases where the town was scattered, and where 

 there were great difficulties in the way of the union 

 of the churches for any object, each church might 

 hold its own meetings with the express object of en- 

 listing readers, and the four meetings, whether held 

 separately or in a central hall, would be devoted, 

 first to a general lecture, illustrated by some fifty 

 or sixty appropriate lantern pictures, dealing gene- 

 rally with the benefits of reading and setting forth 

 the interesting things that were in books. On the 

 second night the meeting would be devoted to poetry, 

 pictures illustrating the more striking scenes in the 

 more popular poets would be shown, and a compe- 

 tent elocutionist would recite illustrative extracts or 

 set pieces from the poets ; and if besides this a 

 choir and an organ could be secured, it would lielp 

 to increase the success of the meeting. The third 

 nig'ht would be devoted to novels ; nor would there 

 be any difficulty in securing a very popular selection 

 of pictures to illustrate novels, all of which should 

 be on sale at the meeting. 



The fourth night should be devoted to the chil- 

 dren, and here there should be no lack of pictures. - 



The object of the lecturer should be to make every 

 parent in the town feel he was not doing his duty by 

 his children unless he provide them with the litera- 

 ture the lecturer recommended. 



