Read "On the Art of Reading, Introductory" by Arthur Quiller-Couch online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The first thing, then, to be noted about the reading of English (with which alone I am concerned) is that for Englishmen it has been made, by Act of Parliament, compulsory.
The next thing to be noted is that in our schools and colleges and universities it has been made, by Statute or in practice, all but impossible.