The Martyrdom of Man, Winwood Reade [best book club books TXT] 📗

The Martyrdom of Man

 

By

 

Winwood Reade

 

Transcribed by Jan Lloyd (villa_la_miranda@mercuryin.es) and Donal O’Danachair

(kodak_seaside@hotmail.com)

 

Contents:

 

Note

 

Author’s Preface

 

* Chapter 1 — War

 

Egypt

 

Western Asia

 

The Persians

 

The Greeks

 

The Macedonians

 

Alexandria

 

The Phoenicians

 

Carthage and Rome

 

Roman Africa

 

The Arabs

 

* Chapter 2 — Religion

 

The Natural History of Religion

 

The Israelites

 

The Jews

 

The Prophets

 

The Character of Jesus

 

The Christians

 

Arabia

 

Mecca

 

The Character of Mohammed

 

Description of Africa

 

The Mohammedans in Central Africa

 

* Chapter 3 — Liberty

 

Ancient Europe

 

The German Invasion

 

The Castle

 

The Town

 

The Church

 

Venice

 

Arab Spain

 

The Portuguese Discoveries

 

The Slave-Trade

 

Abolition in Europe

 

Abolition in America

 

Materials of Human History

 

* Chapter 4 — Intellect

 

Animal Period of the Earth

 

Origin and early History of Man

 

Summary of Universal History

 

The Future of the Human Race

 

The Religion of Reason and Love

 

NOTE

 

Reade’s full name was William Winwood Reade: on the Martrydom, and

on his last book, The Outcast, it stands as Winwood Reade, his literary

choice. A nephew of Charles Reade, he was born at Murrayfield, near

Crieff, on 26 December, 1838, and died at Wimbledon, on 24th April,

1875. (These are the dates of Mr. Legge, who seems, however, not to

have finally correlated them.) He published in 1859 Charlotte and Myra;

in 1860 Liberty Hall Oxon (his college was Magdalen, then known as

Hertford); in 1860 The Veil of Isis, an attack on Catholicism. His first

visit to Africa was in 1862. In 1865 he published See-Saw; in 1868 he

again went to Africa, and in 1873 appeared his African Sketch Book,

which is in part an abridgment of his Savage Africa (1863). The

Martyrdom of Man was published in 1872. In 1873 he made his third trip

to Africa, as Times correspondent in the Ashanti War, which he saw

through, being the only civilian present at the taking of Coomassie; and in

1874 appeared his Story of the Ashanti Campaign, embodying, with

criticism, his Times letters. In his last illness he wrote The Outcast

(1875) setting forth in fiction form the fate of persecution attaching to the

aggressive profession of “unbelief.” Orthodox writers have stressed the

fact that, while he again professes his disbelief in immortality, he does

not profess to ”know.” The Outcast reached a third edition in the year of

its issue, but does not appear to have been since reprinted until its

publication by Watts & Co., in the Thinker’s Library series in 1933.

 

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

 

In 1862-3 I made a tour in Western Africa, and afterwards desired to

revisit that strange country with the view of opening up new ground and

of studying religion and morality among the natives. I was, however,

unable to bear a second time the great expenses of African travel, and had

almost given up the hope of becoming an explorer when I was introduced

by Mr. Bates, the well known Amazon traveller and Secretary of the

Royal Geographical Society, to one of its Associates, Mr. Andrew

Swanzy, who had long desired to do something in the cause of African

discovery. He placed unlimited means at my disposal, and left me free to

choose my own route. I travelled in Africa for two years (1868-70) and

made a journey which is mentioned in the test. The narrative of my

travels will be published in due course; I allude to them now in order to

show that I have had some personal experience of savages. I wish also to

take the first opportunity of thanking Mr. Swanzy for his assistance,

which was given not only in the most generous but also in the most

graceful manner.

 

With respect to the present work, I began it intending to prove that

“Negroland” or Inner Africa is not cut off from the main-stream of

events, as writers of philosophical history have always maintained, but

connected by means of Islam with the lands of the East; and also that it

has, by means of the slave-trade, powerfully influenced the moral history

of Europe and the political history of the United States. But I was

gradually led from writing the history of Africa into writing the history of

the world. I could not describe the Negroland of ancient times without

describing Egypt and Carthage. From Egypt I was drawn to Asia and to

Greece; from Carthage I was drawn to Rome. That is the first chapter.

Next, having to relate the progress of the Mohammedans in Central

Africa, it was necessary for me to explain the nature and origin of Islam,

but that religion cannot be understood without a previous study of

Christianity and of Judaism, and those religions cannot be understood

without a study of religion among savages. That is the second chapter.

Thirdly, I sketched the history of the slave-trade, which took me back to

the discoveries of the Portuguese, the glories of Venetian commerce, the

revival of the arts, the Dark Ages, and the invasion of the Germans. Thus

finding that my outline of universal history was almost complete, I

determined in the last chapter to give a brief summary of the whole,

filling up the parts omitted, and adding to it the materials of another work

suggested several years ago by The Origin of Species.

 

One of my reasons for revisiting Africa was to collect materials for this

work, which I had intended to call The Origin of Mind. However, Mr.

Darwin’s Descent of Man has left little for me to say respecting the birth

and infancy of the faculties and affections. I therefore merely follow in

his footsteps, not from blind veneration for a great master, but because I

find that his conclusions are confirmed by the phenomena of savage life.

On certain minor points I venture to dissent from Mr. Darwin’s views, as

I shall show in my personal narrative, and there is probably much in this

work of which Mr. Darwin will disapprove. He must therefore not be

made responsible for all the opinions of his disciple.

 

I had intended to give my authorities in full with notes and elucidations,

but am prevented from doing so by want of space, this volume being

already larger than it should be. I wish therefore to impress upon the

reader that there is scarcely anything in this work which I can claim as

my own. I have taken not only facts and ideas, but phrases and even

paragraphs, from other writers. I cannot pay all my debts in full, but I

must at least do myself the pleasure of mentioning those authors who

have been my chief guides. On Egypt they are Wilkinson, Herodotus

(Rawlinson’s edition), Bunsen; Ethiopia or Abyssinia, Bruce, Baker,

Lepsius; Carthage, Heeren (African Nations), Niebuhr, Mommsen;

East Africa, Vincent (Periplus), Guillain, Hakluyt Society’s

Publications; Moslem Africa (Central), Park, Caillie, Denham and

Clapperton, Lander, Barth, Ibn Batuta, Leo Africanus; Guinea and

South Africa, Azurara, Barros, Major, Hakluyt, Purchas, Livingstone;

Assyria, Sir H. Rawlinson, Layard; India, Max Muller, Weber; Persia,

Heeren (Asiatic Nations); Central Asia, Burnes, Wolff, Vambery;

Arabia, Niebuhr, Caussin de Perceval, Sprenger, Deutsch, Muir,

Burckhardt, Burton, Palgrave; Palestine, Dean Stanley, Renan,

Dollinger, Spinoza, Robinson, Neander; Greece, Grote, O. Muller,

Curtius, Heeren, Lewes, Taine, About, Becker (Charicles); Rome,

Gibbon, Macaulay, Becker (Gallus); Dark Ages, Hallam, Guizot,

Robertson, Prescott, Irving; Philosophy of History, Herder, Buckle

Comte, Lecky, Mill, Draper; Science, Darwin, Lyell, Herbert,

Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, Chambers (Vestiges of Creation), Wallace,

Tylor, and Lubbock. All of the works of the above named authors

deserve to be carefully read by the students of universal history, and in

them he will find references to the original authorities, and to all writers

of importance on the various subjects treated of in this work.

As for my religious sentiments, they are expressed in opposition to the

advice and wishes of several literary friends, and of the publisher, who

have urged me to alter certain passages which they do not like, and which

they believe will provoke against me the anger of the public. Now, as a

literary workman I am thankful to be guided by the knowledge of experts,

and I bow to the decisions of the great public, for whom alone I write,

whom alone I care to please, and in whose broad unbiased judgment I

place implicit trust. But in the matter of religion I listen to no

remonstrance; I acknowledge no decision save that of the divine monitor

within me. My conscience is my adviser, my audience, and my judge. It

bade me write as I have written, without evasion, without disguise; it bids

me to go on as I have begun, whatever the result may be. If therefore my

religious opinions should be condemned, without a single exception, by

every reader of the book, it will not make me regret having expressed

them, and it will not prevent me from expressing then again. It is my

earnest and sincere conviction that those opinions are not only true, but

also that they tend to elevate and purify the mind. One thing at all events

I know—that it has done me good to write this book, and therefore I do

not think that it can injure those by whom it will be read.