
The Martyrdom of Man by William Winwood Reade
ClearNFO: The book that made Cecil Rhodes.
At Oxford Rhodes read, and fell under the influence of Winwood Reade’s The Martyrdom of Man, a book he described as creepy, but one that ‘made me what I am’.° Reade extended Darwinian Theory to the social sciences with the objective of infusing scientific rigor into sociology and history. With the zeal of a scientific exorcist, Reade dismissed religious ideas in general and afterlife ideas in particular, replacing divinity’s role in perfecting the human condition with the fundamental social Darwinian axiom that evolution brings about “perfection.”
While assimilating Reade’s Darwinism, Rhodes came under the influence of John Ruskin, the charismatic British imperialist. Ruskin promoted Britain “seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can get her foot on” to “advance the power of England by land and sea.” ’ Ruskin and Reade convinced Rhodes that an unknowable God had ordained evolution to produce human perfection. Human history recorded the Darwinian ascent of the Anglo-Saxon race, a race destined for mastery. Rhodes determined his destiny lay in expediting the triumph of the British Empire, a belief that developed into a quasi-religion. After entering the Masonic Lodge on 2 June 1877, Rhodes experienced something akin to a religious conversion, prompting him to write his confessions. The following 1s an excerpt:
Confession of Faith by Cecil Rhodes (1877)
It often strikes a man to inquire what 1s the chief good in life; to one the thought comes that it is a happy marriage, to another great wealth, and as each seizes on his idea, for that he more or less works for the rest of his existence. To myself thinking over the same question the wish came to render myself useful to my country … [have felt that at the present day we are actually limiting our children and perhaps bringing into the world half the human beings we might owing to the lack of country for them to inhabit that if we had retained America there would at this moment be millions more English living. I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it 1s for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence … I contend that every acre added to our territory means in the future birth to some more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence. Added to this the absorption of the greater portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars … Having these ideas what scheme could we think of to forward this object. | look into history and I read the story of the Jesuits I see what they were able to do in a bad cause and | might say under bad leaders.
In the present day I become a member of the Masonic order I see the wealth and power they possess the influence they hold and I think over their ceremonies and I wonder that a large body of men can devote themselves to what at times appear the most ridiculous and absurd rites without an object and without an end.
The idea gleaming and dancing before one’s eyes like a will-of-the-wisp at last frames itself into a plan. Why should we not form a secret society with but one object the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilised world under British rule for the recovery of the United States for the making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire …
Africa is still lying ready for us it is our duty to take it. It 1s our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.
To forward such a scheme what a splendid help a secret society would be a society not openly acknowledged but who would work in secret for such an object … A society which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea…
Rhodes’ “credo” provides a valuable window to his psyche. He wanted Anglo-American world hegemony. His fervor for racial purity, racial supremacy and racial reproduction may leave one in need of a bromide; however, Rhodes not only subscribed to these racist ideals but transformed them into a personal religion. He crossbred his early Christianity (his father had been a churchman) with his later Freemasonry to produce a quasi-religious cult consecrated to the exaltation of the British Empire and the AngloSaxon race. Rhodes’ dream combined social Darwinism, racism and megalomania, and unfortunately for humanity, he had the determination and magnetism to give life to his dream.
Source: ‘Lord Milner’s Second War The Rhodes Milner Secret Society The Origin Of World War I And The Start Of The New World Order’ (2013) – Mr. John P. Cafferky (starting on page 11).
The Martyrdom of Man, by by British historian, explorer, philosopher, and freethought advocate, William Winwood Reade, was originally published in 1872. The work is a secular and universal history of the Western world. Divided into four chapters, each describing a related topic. The first War, talks of the imprisonment of men throughout various times and nations. The second Religion, talks of religion and thought, again over the span of nations and time, the third, Liberty discusses European political and intellectual history. Finally, the fourth, Intellect, discusses the cosmogonic structure of universal history. The work came to be known as a bible for secularists, in which it attempts to trace the development of Western civilization in a manner similar to the natural sciences. The work was vociferously attacked due to Reade’s attack on Christian dogma, and was subsequently condemned by multiple magazines. The work itself was even denounced by then British Prime Minister William Gladstone, as a fundamentally irreligious work. Despite Reade’s irreligiosity, he was not an atheist, and had a belief in a non-personal deity beyond the comprehension of the human intellect or the reach of prayer.









