By way of Marcel Proust, I used to admire John Ruskin for his prose, and his views on art. I had no idea how strongly he advocated for Britain's colonisation of other lands. In his inaugural lecture at Oxford University in 1870, he declared that England ‘must found colonies as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and worthiest men; – seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and sea’. Cecil Rhodes had a copy of this written out in longhand, which he kept in his coat pocket for the rest of his life. --- Source: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n10/rosa-lyster/not-particularly-rare