author - "José Rizal"
ched its climax with the insults, and the lethargic spirit woke to life. His sensitiveness, the chief trait of the native, was touched, and while he had had the forbearance to suffer and die under a foreign flag, he had it not when they whom he served repaid his sacrifices with insults and jests. Then he began to study himself and to realize his misfortune. Those who had not expected this result, like all despotic masters, regarded as a wrong every complaint, every protest, and punished it with death, endeavoring thus to stifle every cry of sorrow with blood, and they made mistake after mistake.
The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had been awakened in only a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely and consumingly propagated, thanks to abuses and the stupid endeavors of certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments. Thus when a flame catches a garment, fear and confusion propagate it more and more, and each shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to f
them, as well as correct theevil and repress them, would be the duty of society and governments,if less noble thoughts did not occupy their attention. The evil isthat the indolence in the Philippines is a magnified indolence, anindolence of the snowball type, if we may be permitted the expression,an evil that increases in direct proportion to the square of theperiods of time, an effect of misgovernment and of backwardness,as we said, and not a cause thereof. Others will hold the contraryopinion, especially those who have a hand in the misgovernment, butwe do not care; we have made an assertion and are going to prove it.
II
When in consequence of a long chronic illness the condition of thepatient is examined, the question may arise whether the weakeningof the fibers and the debility of the organs are the cause of themalady's continuing or the effect of the bad treatment that prolongsits action. The attending physician attributes the entire failure ofhis skill to the poor constitution o
s, and onlyafter she had recovered from her astonishment and her husband hadfled did she take notice of the pain, then remaining in bed forseveral days, to the great delight of Paulita, who was very fondof joking and laughing at her aunt. As for her husband, horrifiedat the impiety of what appeared to him to be a terrific parricide,he took to flight, pursued by the matrimonial furies (two curs and aparrot), with all the speed his lameness permitted, climbed into thefirst carriage he encountered, jumped into the first banka he saw onthe river, and, a Philippine Ulysses, began to wander from town totown, from province to province, from island to island, pursued andpersecuted by his bespectacled Calypso, who bored every one that hadthe misfortune to travel in her company. She had received a report ofhis being in the province of La Laguna, concealed in one of the towns,so thither she was bound to seduce him back with her dyed frizzes.
Her fellow travelers had taken measures of defense by keeping
s controlled by her it was coldly received and blindly rejected by the governing powers, and there was left only the slower, subtler, but none the less sure, process of working its way among the people to burst in time in rebellion and the destruction of the conservative forces that would repress it.
In the opening years of the nineteenth century the friar orders in the Philippines had reached the apogee of their power and usefulness. Their influence was everywhere felt and acknowledged, while the country still prospered under the effects of the vigorous and progressive administrations of Anda and Vargas in the preceding century. Native levies had fought loyally under Spanish leadership against Dutch and British invaders, or in suppressing local revolts among their own people, which were always due to some specific grievance, never directed definitely against the Spanish sovereignty. The Philippines were shut off from contact with any country but Spain, and even this communication was restricted and ca
ched its climax with the insults, and the lethargic spirit woke to life. His sensitiveness, the chief trait of the native, was touched, and while he had had the forbearance to suffer and die under a foreign flag, he had it not when they whom he served repaid his sacrifices with insults and jests. Then he began to study himself and to realize his misfortune. Those who had not expected this result, like all despotic masters, regarded as a wrong every complaint, every protest, and punished it with death, endeavoring thus to stifle every cry of sorrow with blood, and they made mistake after mistake.
The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had been awakened in only a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely and consumingly propagated, thanks to abuses and the stupid endeavors of certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments. Thus when a flame catches a garment, fear and confusion propagate it more and more, and each shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to f
them, as well as correct theevil and repress them, would be the duty of society and governments,if less noble thoughts did not occupy their attention. The evil isthat the indolence in the Philippines is a magnified indolence, anindolence of the snowball type, if we may be permitted the expression,an evil that increases in direct proportion to the square of theperiods of time, an effect of misgovernment and of backwardness,as we said, and not a cause thereof. Others will hold the contraryopinion, especially those who have a hand in the misgovernment, butwe do not care; we have made an assertion and are going to prove it.
II
When in consequence of a long chronic illness the condition of thepatient is examined, the question may arise whether the weakeningof the fibers and the debility of the organs are the cause of themalady's continuing or the effect of the bad treatment that prolongsits action. The attending physician attributes the entire failure ofhis skill to the poor constitution o
s, and onlyafter she had recovered from her astonishment and her husband hadfled did she take notice of the pain, then remaining in bed forseveral days, to the great delight of Paulita, who was very fondof joking and laughing at her aunt. As for her husband, horrifiedat the impiety of what appeared to him to be a terrific parricide,he took to flight, pursued by the matrimonial furies (two curs and aparrot), with all the speed his lameness permitted, climbed into thefirst carriage he encountered, jumped into the first banka he saw onthe river, and, a Philippine Ulysses, began to wander from town totown, from province to province, from island to island, pursued andpersecuted by his bespectacled Calypso, who bored every one that hadthe misfortune to travel in her company. She had received a report ofhis being in the province of La Laguna, concealed in one of the towns,so thither she was bound to seduce him back with her dyed frizzes.
Her fellow travelers had taken measures of defense by keeping
s controlled by her it was coldly received and blindly rejected by the governing powers, and there was left only the slower, subtler, but none the less sure, process of working its way among the people to burst in time in rebellion and the destruction of the conservative forces that would repress it.
In the opening years of the nineteenth century the friar orders in the Philippines had reached the apogee of their power and usefulness. Their influence was everywhere felt and acknowledged, while the country still prospered under the effects of the vigorous and progressive administrations of Anda and Vargas in the preceding century. Native levies had fought loyally under Spanish leadership against Dutch and British invaders, or in suppressing local revolts among their own people, which were always due to some specific grievance, never directed definitely against the Spanish sovereignty. The Philippines were shut off from contact with any country but Spain, and even this communication was restricted and ca