Biosophy 
WINWOOD READE. 
150. I now come to one of the most remarkable 
men associated with the Rationalist movement. 
151. William Winwood Reade (1838-1875) con- 
trived in his short life of 37 years to undergo remarkable 
adventures as an African explorer, and, besides his other 
‘literary works wrote “The Martyrdom of Man,” which, 
from its first issue in 1872, has year by year won in- 
creasing popularity and reputation. In 1903 this book 
had already reached its 17th edition, and there have 
since appeared several others as well as cheap reprints. 
152. Winwood Reade was of a good Oxfordshire 
family, and was a nephew of the great novelist, Charles 
Reade. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, 
and early showed a taste for science, which for a time 
he deserted in an unsuccessful attempt to follow his 
uncle’s example as a novelist. 
153. Subsequently (says the Dictionary of National 
Biography) Mr. Du Chaillu’s theories, published in 
1861, respecting the power and aggressive character of 
the gorilla so inflamed Reade’s curiosity that, having 
raised money on his inheritance, he started for Gaboon 
to ascertain the truth, and after five months of hunting, 
during which time he ascended the river higher than 
any of his predecessors, discovered its rapids and visited 
the cannibal races, he was finally able to demonstrate 
to scientific men that the gorilla is an exceedingly timor- 
ous animal, almost inaccessible to European sportsmen 
in the thick jungles which it inhabits. He then visited 
Angola in south-western Africa, and afterwards ascended 
the Casemanche, Gambia and Senegal, seeing something 
of Moslem life among the negroes, and also of the wild 
tawny Moors. 
154. In these travels be became conscious of his 
ignorance, and after his return to England he recom- 
menced the study of science. 
at St. Mary's Hospital, and in 1866 volunteered his ser- 
vices for the cholera hospital at Southampton. In 1869 
he revisited the African Continent under the auspices of 
the Royal Geographical Society, Mr. Andrew Swanzy, 
a well-known merchant on the Gold Coast, providing the 
means. His first object was to open up the Assinie 
river, and to go as far as Coomassie, but the Ashantees 
prevented him. He then proceeded to Sierra Leone, and 
thence started to explore the sources of the Niger. He 
reached Faluba, where he was detained for three months 
in honorable captivity, and then sent back. Still un- 
daunted, he started again, and this time he was allowed 
to pass. He succeeded in reaching the Niger, but as the 
source was inaccessible owing to native wars, he went 
to the gold mines of Bowri, a country never previously 
visited by a European. 
155. In November, 1873, he returned to Africa as 
special correspondent of the “Times” during the Ashan- 
tee war, and fought at the battle of Amoaful in the ranks 
of the 42nd. Highlanders, From this third expedition ta 
Africa he returned quite broken down in health, and 
he died in 24th April, 1875, 
He entered as a student , 
156. His uncle, Charles Reade, in an obituary notice 
("Daily Telegraph," 27th April, 1875) observed that 
“the writer thus cut off in his prime entered life with 
excellent prospects; he was heir to considerable estates; 
and gifted with genius, But he did not live long enough 
to inherit the one or to mature the other. His whole 
public career embraced but fifteen years; yet in another 
fifteen he would probably have won a great name and 
cured himself, as many thinking men have done, of 
certain obnoxious opinions which laid him open to 
reasonable censure." 
157. Benn, in his *History of English Rationalism 
in the 19th Century," refers to Winwood Reade as “The 
stormy petrel of the advancing hurricane . . . . a wriier 
158. *The Martyrdom of Man," published in 1872, 
-is a sketch of universal history, with particular reference 
60 
to religions. The “martyrdom of man” consists in re- 
nouncing for truth’s sake the “sweet and charming illu- 
sion” of the immortality of the soul. “Christianity is 
not only false but a superstition and ought to be des- 
troyed.^ “God-worship is idolatry. Prayer is useless. 
The soul is not immortal. There are no rewards and 
punishments in a future state.” 
159. “The Supreme Power,” says Reade;" is not a 
Mind but something higher than a Mind; not a Force, 
but something higher than a Force; not a Being, but 
something higher than a Being; something for which 
we have no words, something for which we have no 
ideas." “It is an unknown God, supreme and mys- 
terious." - Yet we know that it exists, that by it the 
universe has been created; that it is One; that prayer 
to it would be profanity. 
160. Reade says, some persons argue, “that it is 
impossible to attack Christianity without also attacking 
all that is good, all that is pure, all that is lovely in 
human nature. When you travelled in Africa (they 
say) did you not join in the sacrifices of the pagans? .. . 
and since you could be so tolerant to savages surely you 
are bound to be more tolerant still to those who belong 
to your own race, to those who possess a nobler religion 
. . . To this I reply that the religion of the Africans, 
whether pagan or Moslem, is suited to their intellects, 
and is therefore a true religion; and the same may be 
said of Christianity amongst uneducated people. But 
Christianity is not in accordance with the cultivated 
mind; it can only be accepted, or rather retained, by 
suppressing doubts, and by denouncing inquiry as sinful, 
It is therefore a superstition, and ought to be destroyed. 
With respect to the services which it once rendered to 
civilisation, I cheerfully acknowledge them, but the 
same argument might once have been advanced in favor 
of the oracle at. Delphi, without which there would have 
been no Greek culture, and therefore no Christianity. 
The question is not whether Christianity assisted the 
civilisation of our ancestors, but whether it is now assist- 
ing our own. I am firmly persuaded that whatever 
