II
And third came she who gives dark creeds their power, Silabbat-paramasa, sorceress, Draped fair in many lands as lowly Faith, But ever juggling souls with rites and prayers; The keeper of those keys which lock up Hells And open Heavens. "Wilt thou dare," she said, "Put by our sacred books, dethrone our gods, Unpeople all the temples, shaking down That law which feeds the priests and props the realm?" But Buddha answered, "What thou bidd'st me keep Is form which passes, but the free Truth stands; Get thee unto thy darkness."
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, _The Light of Asia_.
"Ah, simple people, how little do you know the blessing that youenjoy! Neither hunger, nor nakedness, nor inclemency of the weathertroubles you. With the payment of seven reals per year, you remain freeof contributions. You do not have to close your houses with bolts. Youdo not fear that the district troopers will come in to lay waste yourfields, and trample you under foot at your own firesides. You call'father' the one who is in command over you. Perhaps there will comea time when you will be more civilized, and you will break out inrevolution; and you will wake terrified, at the tumult of the riots,and will see blood flowing through these quiet fields, and gallowsand guillotines erected in these squares, which never yet have seen anexecution." [6] Thus moralized a Spanish traveler in 1842, just as that_dolce far niente_ was drawing to its close. Already far-seeing men hadbegun to raise in the Spanish parliament the question of the future ofthe Philippines, looking toward some definite program for their careunder modern conditions and for the adjustment of their relations withthe mother country. But these were mere Cassandra-voices--the horologeof time was striking for Rome's successor, as it did for Rome herself.
Just where will come the outbreak after three centuries ofmind-repression and soul-distortion, of forcing a growing subjectinto the strait-jacket of medieval thought and action, of naturalselection reversed by the constant elimination of native initiative andleadership, is indeed a curious study. That there will be an outbreaksomewhere is as certain as that the plant will grow toward the light,even under the most unfavorable conditions, for man's nature is butthe resultant of eternal forces that ceaselessly and irresistiblyinterplay about and upon him, and somewhere this resultant willexpress itself in thought or deed.
After three centuries of Spanish ecclesiastical domination in thePhilippines, it was to be expected that the wards would turn againsttheir mentors the methods that had been used upon them, nor is itespecially remarkable that there was a decided tendency in some partsto revert to primitive barbarism, but that concurrently a creativegenius--a bard or seer--should have been developed among a peoplewho, as a whole, have hardly passed through the clan or villagestage of society, can be regarded as little less than a psychologicalphenomenon, and provokes the perhaps presumptuous inquiry as to whetherthere may not be some things about our common human nature that thelearned doctors have not yet included in their anthropometric diagrams.
On the western shore of the Lake of Bay in the heart of the Philippinesclusters the village of Kalamba, first established by the JesuitFathers in the early days of the conquest, and upon their expulsionin 1767 taken over by the Crown, which later transferred it to theDominicans, under whose care the fertile fields about it became oneof the richest of the friar estates. It can hardly be called a town,even for the Philippines, but is rather a market-village, set as itis at the outlet of the rich country of northern Batangas on theopen waterway to Manila and the outside world. Around it flourishthe green rice-fields, while Mount Makiling towers majestically nearin her moods of cloud and sunshine, overlooking the picturesquecurve of the shore and the rippling waters of the lake. Shadowyto the eastward gleam the purple crests of Banahao and Cristobal,and but a few miles to the southwestward dim-thundering, seething,earth-rocking Taal mutters and moans of the world's birth-throes. Itis the center of a region rich in native lore and legend, as it sleepsthrough the dusty noons when the cacao leaves droop with the heat anddreams through the silvery nights, waking twice or thrice a week tothe endless babble and ceaseless chatter of an Oriental market wherethe noisy throngs make of their trading as much a matter of pleasureand recreation as of business.
Directly opposite this market-place, in a house facing the villagechurch, there was born in 1861 into the already large family of oneof the more prosperous tenants on the Dominican estate a boy who wasto combine in his person the finest traits of the Oriental characterwith the best that Spanish and European culture could add, on whomwould fall the burden of his people's woes to lead him over the _viadolorosa_ of struggle and sacrifice, ending in his own destructionamid the crumbling ruins of the system whose disintegration he himselfhad done so much to compass.
Jose Rizal-Mercado y Alonso, as his name emerges from the confusionof Filipino nomenclature, was of Malay extraction, with some distantstrains of Spanish and Chinese blood. His genealogy reveals severalpersons remarkable for intellect and independence of character, notablya Philippine Eloise and Abelard, who, drawn together by their commonenthusiasm for study and learning, became his maternal grandparents, aswell as a great-uncle who was a traveler and student and who directedthe boy's early studies. Thus from the beginning his training wasexceptional, while his mind was stirred by the trouble already brewingin his community, and from the earliest hours of consciousness he sawabout him the wrongs and injustices which overgrown power will everdevelop in dealing with a weaker subject. One fact of his childhood,too, stands out clearly, well worthy of record: his mother seems tohave been a woman of more than ordinary education for the time andplace, and, pleased with the boy's quick intelligence, she taught himto read Spanish from a copy of the Vulgate in that language, whichshe had somehow managed to secure and keep in her possession--theold, old story of the Woman and the Book, repeated often enough understrange circumstances, but under none stranger than these. The boy'sfather was well-to-do, so he was sent at the age of eight to studyin the new Jesuit school in Manila, not however before he had alreadyinspired some awe in his simple neighbors by the facility with whichhe composed verses in his native tongue.
He began his studies in a private house while waiting for anopportunity to enter the Ateneo, as the Jesuit school is called,and while there he saw one of his tutors, Padre Burgos, haled toan ignominious death on the garrote as a result of the affair of1872. This made a deep impression on his childish mind and, in fact,seems to have been one of the principal factors in molding his ideasand shaping his career. That the effect upon him was lasting and thathis later judgment confirmed him in the belief that a great injusticehad been done, are shown by the fact that his second important work,_El Filibusterismo_, written about 1891, and miscalled by himself a"novel," for it is really a series of word-paintings constituting aterrific arraignment of the whole regime, was dedicated to the threepriests executed in 1872, in these words: "Religion, in refusingto degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime imputed to you; thegovernment, in surrounding your case with mystery and shadow, givesreason for belief in some error, committed in fatal moments; and allthe Philippines, in venerating your memory and calling you martyrs,in no way acknowledges your guilt." The only answer he ever receivedto this was eight Remington bullets fired into his back.
In the Ateneo he quickly attracted attention and became a generalfavorite by his application to his studies, the poetic fervor withwhich he entered into all the exercises of religious devotion, andthe gentleness of his character. He was from the first considered"peculiar," for so the common mind regards everything that fails to fitthe old formulas, being of a rather dreamy and reticent disposition,more inclined to reading Spanish romances than joining in the games ofhis schoolmates. And of all the literatures that could be placed inthe hands of an imaginative child, what one would be more productivein a receptive mind of a fervid love of life and home and country andall that men hold dear, than that of the musical language of Castile,with its high coloring and passionate character?
His activities were
varied, for, in addition to his regular studies,he demonstrated considerable skill in wood-carving and wax-modeling,and during this period won several prizes for poetical compositionsin Spanish, which, while sometimes juvenile in form and followingclosely after Spanish models, reveal at times flashes of thought andturns of expression that show distinct originality; even in theseearly compositions there is that plaintive undertone, that minorchord of sadness, which pervades all his poems, reaching its fullestmeasure of pathos in the verses written in his death-cell. He receiveda bachelor's degree according to the Spanish system in 1877, butcontinued advanced studies in agriculture at the Ateneo, at the sametime that he was pursuing the course in philosophy in the DominicanUniversity of Santo Tomas, where in 1879 he startled the learneddoctors by a reference in a prize poem to the Philippines as his"patria," fatherland. This political heresy on the part of a nativeof the islands was given no very serious attention at the time, beinglooked upon as the vagary of a schoolboy, but again in the followingyear, by what seems a strange fatality, he stirred the resentment ofthe friars, especially the Dominicans, by winning over some of theirnumber the first prize in a literary contest celebrated in honor ofthe author of _Don Quixote_.
The archaic instruction in Santo Tomas soon disgusted him and led todisagreements with the instructors, and he turned to Spain. Plansfor his journey and his stay there had to be made with the utmostcaution, for it would hardly have fared well with his family hadit become known that the son of a tenant on an estate which was apart of the University endowment was studying in Europe. He reachedSpanish territory first in Barcelona, the hotbed of radicalism,where he heard a good deal of revolutionary talk, which, however,seems to have made but little impression upon him, for throughouthis entire career breadth of thought and strength of character arerevealed in his consistent opposition to all forms of violence.
In Madrid he pursued the courses in medicine and philosophy, but afact of even more consequence than his proficiency in his regularwork was his persistent study of languages and his omnivorousreading. He was associated with the other Filipinos who were workingin a somewhat spectacular way, misdirected rather than led by whatmay be styled the Spanish liberals, for more considerate treatment ofthe Philippines. But while he was among them he was not of them, ashis studious habits and reticent disposition would hardly have madehim a favorite among those who were enjoying the broader and gayerlife there. Moreover, he soon advanced far beyond them in thought byrealizing that they were beginning at the wrong end of the labor,for even at that time he seems to have caught, by what must almostbe looked upon as an inspiration of genius, since there was nothingapparent in his training that would have suggested it, the realizationof the fact that hope for his people lay in bettering their condition,that any real benefit must begin with the benighted folk at home,that the introduction of reforms for which they were unprepared wouldbe useless, even dangerous to them. This was not at all the popularidea among his associates and led to serious disagreements with theirleaders, for it was the way of toil and sacrifice without any of theexcitement and glamour that came from drawing up magnificent plansand sending them back home with appeals for funds to carry on thepropaganda--for the most part banquets and entertainments to Spain'spolitical leaders.
His views, as revealed in his purely political writings, may besuccinctly stated, for he had that faculty of expression which neverleaves any room for doubt as to the meaning. His people had a naturalright to grow and to develop, and any obstacles to such growth anddevelopment were to be removed. He realized that the masses of hiscountrymen were sunk deep in poverty and ignorance, cringing andcrouching before political authority, crawling and groveling beforereligious superstition, but to him this was no subject for jestor indifferent neglect--it was a serious condition which should beameliorated, and hope lay in working into the inert social mass theleaven of conscious individual effort toward the development of adistinctive, responsible personality. He was profoundly appreciativeof all the good that Spain had done, but saw in this no inconsistencywith the desire that this gratitude might be given cause to be everon the increase, thereby uniting the Philippines with the mothercountry by the firm bonds of common ideas and interests, for hisearlier writings breathe nothing but admiration, respect, and loyaltyfor Spain and her more advanced institutions. The issue was clear tohim and he tried to keep it so.
It was indeed administrative myopia, induced largely by blind greed,which allowed the friar orders to confuse the objections to theirrepressive system with an attack upon Spanish sovereignty, therebydragging matters from bad to worse, to engender ill feeling and finallydesperation. This narrow, selfish policy had about as much soundnessin it as the idea upon which it was based, so often brought forwardwith what looks very suspiciously like a specious effort to covermental indolence with a glittering generality, "that the Filipino isonly a grown-up child and needs a strong paternal government," an ideawhich entirely overlooks the natural fact that when an impressionablesubject comes within the influence of a stronger force from a highercivilization he is very likely to remain a child--perhaps a stuntedone--as long as he is treated as such. There is about as much senseand justice in such logic as there would be in that of keeping a babeconfined in swaddling-bands and then blaming it for not knowing how towalk. No creature will remain a healthy child forever, but, as Spainlearned to her bitter cost, will be very prone, as the parent growsdecrepit and it begins to feel its strength, to prove a troublesomesubject to handle, thereby reversing the natural law suggested by thecomparison, and bringing such Sancho-Panza statecraft to flounder atlast through as hopeless confusion to as absurd a conclusion as hisown island government.
Rizal was not one of those rabid, self-seeking revolutionists whowould merely overthrow the government and maintain the old systemwith themselves in the privileged places of the former rulers, noris he to be classed among the misguided enthusiasts who by theirintemperate demands and immoderate conduct merely strengthen thehands of those in power. He realized fully that the restrictionsunder which the people had become accustomed to order their livesshould be removed gradually as they advanced under suitable guidanceand became capable of adjusting themselves to the new and betterconditions. They should take all the good offered, from any source,especially that suited to their nature, which they could properlyassimilate. No great patience was ever exhibited by him toward thoseof his countrymen--the most repulsive characters in his stories aresuch--who would make of themselves mere apes and mimes, decoratingthemselves with a veneer of questionable alien characteristics, butwith no personality or stability of their own, presenting at besta spectacle to make devils laugh and angels weep, lacking even thehothouse product's virtue of being good to look upon.
Reduced to a definite form, the wish of the more thoughtful in thenew generation of Filipino leaders that was growing up was that thePhilippine Islands be made a province of Spain with representation inthe Cortes and the concomitant freedom of expression and criticism. Allthat was directly asked was some substantial participation in themanagement of local affairs, and the curtailment of the arbitrary powerof petty officials, especially of the friar curates, who constitutedthe chief obstacle to the education and development of the people.
The friar orders were, however, all-powerful, not only in thePhilippines, but also in Madrid, where they were not chary of makinguse of a part of their wealth to maintain their influence. Theefforts of the Filipinos in Spain, while closely watched, do notseem to have been given any very serious attention, for the Spanishauthorities no doubt realized that as long as the young men stayedin Madrid writing manifestoes in a language which less than oneper cent of their countrymen could read and spending their moneyon members of the Cortes, there could be little danger of troublein the Philippines. Moreover, the Spanish ministers themselvesappear to have been in sympathy with the more moderate wishes ofthe Filipinos, a fact indicated by the number of changes orderedfrom time to time in the Philippine administration, but they werepowerless before the stren
gth and local influence of the religiousorders. So matters dragged their weary way along until there was anunexpected and startling development, a David-Goliath contest, andcertainly no one but a genius could have polished the "smooth stone"that was to smite the giant.
It is said that the idea of writing a novel depicting conditions inhis native land first came to Rizal from a perusal of Eugene Sue's_The Wandering Jew_, while he was a student in Madrid, although themodel for the greater part of it is plainly the delectable sketchesin _Don Quixote_, for the author himself possessed in a remarkabledegree that Cervantic touch which raises the commonplace, even themean, into the highest regions of art. Not, however, until he hadspent some time in Paris continuing his medical studies, and later inGermany, did anything definite result. But in 1887 _Noli Me Tangere_was printed in Berlin, in an establishment where the author is saidto have worked part of his time as a compositor in order to defrayhis expenses while he continued his studies. A limited edition waspublished through the financial aid extended by a Filipino associate,and sent to Hongkong, thence to be surreptitiously introduced intothe Philippines.
_Noli Me Tangere_ ("Touch Me Not") at the time the work was written hada peculiar fitness as a title. Not only was there an apt suggestionof a comparison with the common flower of that name, but the termis also applied in pathology to a malignant cancer which affectsevery bone and tissue in the body, and that this latter was in theauthor's mind would appear from the dedication and from the summing-upof the Philippine situation in the final conversation between Ibarraand Elias. But in a letter written to a friend in Paris at the time,the author himself says that it was taken from the Gospel scene wherethe risen Savior appears to the Magdalene, to whom He addresses thesewords, a scene that has been the subject of several notable paintings.
In this connection it is interesting to note what he himself thought ofthe work, and his frank statement of what he had tried to accomplish,made just as he was publishing it: "_Noli Me Tangere_, an expressiontaken from the Gospel of St. Luke, [7] means _touch me not_. Thebook contains things of which no one up to the present time hasspoken, for they are so sensitive that they have never sufferedthemselves to be touched by any one whomsoever. For my own part, Ihave attempted to do what no one else has been willing to do: I havedared to answer the calumnies that have for centuries been heapedupon us and our country. I have written of the social condition andthe life, of our beliefs, our hopes, our longings, our complaints,and our sorrows; I have unmasked the hypocrisy which, under the cloakof religion, has come among us to impoverish and to brutalize us,I have distinguished the true religion from the false, from thesuperstition that traffics with the holy word to get money and tomake us believe in absurdities for which Catholicism would blush,if ever it knew of them. I have unveiled that which has been hiddenbehind the deceptive and dazzling words of our governments. I havetold our countrymen of our mistakes, our vices, our faults, and ourweak complaisance with our miseries there. Where I have found virtue Ihave spoken of it highly in order to render it homage; and if I havenot wept in speaking of our misfortunes, I have laughed over them,for no one would wish to weep with me over our woes, and laughteris ever the best means of concealing sorrow. The deeds that I haverelated are true and have actually occurred; I can furnish proof ofthis. My book may have (and it does have) defects from an artisticand esthetic point of view--this I do not deny--but no one can disputethe veracity of the facts presented." [8]
But while the primary purpose and first effect of the work was tocrystallize anti-friar sentiment, the author has risen above a merepersonal attack, which would give it only a temporary value, and byportraying in so clear and sympathetic a way the life of his peoplehas produced a piece of real literature, of especial interest now asthey are being swept into the newer day. Any fool can point out errorsand defects, if they are at all apparent, and the persistent searchingthem out for their own sake is the surest mark of the vulpine mind,but the author has east aside all such petty considerations and,whether consciously or not, has left a work of permanent value tohis own people and of interest to all friends of humanity. If ever afair land has been cursed with the wearisome breed of fault-finders,both indigenous and exotic, that land is the Philippines, so it isindeed refreshing to turn from the dreary waste of carping criticisms,pragmatical "scientific" analyses, and sneering half-truths to a storypulsating with life, presenting the Filipino as a human being, withhis virtues and his vices, his loves and hates, his hopes and fears.
The publication of _Noli Me Tangere_ suggests the reflection thatthe story of Achilles' heel is a myth only in form. The belief thatany institution, system, organization, or arrangement has reachedan absolute form is about as far as human folly can go. The friarorders looked upon themselves as the sum of human achievement inman-driving and God-persuading, divinely appointed to rule, fixedin their power, far above suspicion. Yet they were obsessed by thesensitive, covert dread of exposure that ever lurks spectrally underpharisaism's specious robe, so when there appeared this work of a"miserable Indian," who dared to portray them and the conditionsthat their control produced exactly as they were--for the indefinabletouch by which the author gives an air of unimpeachable veracity tohis story is perhaps its greatest artistic merit--the effect upon themercurial Spanish temperament was, to say the least, electric. Thevery audacity of the thing left the friars breathless.
A committee of learned doctors from Santo Tomas, who were appointedto examine the work, unmercifully scored it as attacking everythingfrom the state religion to the integrity of the Spanish dominions,so the circulation of it in the Philippines was, of course, strictlyprohibited, which naturally made the demand for it greater. Largesums were paid for single copies, of which, it might be remarked inpassing, the author himself received scarcely any part; collectionshave ever had a curious habit of going astray in the Philippines.
Although the possession of a copy by a Filipino usually meant summaryimprisonment or deportation, often with the concomitant confiscationof property for the benefit of some "patriot," the book was widely readamong the leading families and had the desired effect of crystallizingthe sentiment against the friars, thus to pave the way for concertedaction. At last the idol had been flouted, so all could attackit. Within a year after it had begun to circulate in the Philippines amemorial was presented to the Archbishop by quite a respectable part ofthe Filipinos in Manila, requesting that the friar orders be expelledfrom the country, but this resulted only in the deportation of everysigner of the petition upon whom the government could lay hands. Theywere scattered literally to the four corners of the earth: some tothe Ladrone Islands, some to Fernando Po off the west coast of Africa,some to Spanish prisons, others to remote parts of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the author had returned to the Philippines for a visitto his family, during which time he was constantly attended by anofficer of the Civil Guard, detailed ostensibly as a body-guard. Allhis movements were closely watched, and after a few months theCaptain-General "advised" him to leave the country, at the same timerequesting a copy of _Noli Me Tangere_, saying that the excerptssubmitted to him by the censor had awakened a desire to read theentire work. Rizal returned to Europe by way of Japan and the UnitedStates, which did not seem to make any distinct impression upon him,although it was only a little later that he predicted that when Spainlost control of the Philippines, an eventuality he seemed to considercertain not far in the future, the United States would be a probablesuccessor. [9]
Returning to Europe, he spent some time in London preparing an editionof Morga's _Sucesos de las Filipinas_, a work published in Mexicoabout 1606 by the principal actor in some of the most stirring scenesof the formative period of the Philippine government. It is a recordof prime importance in Philippine history, and the resuscitation ofit was no small service to the country. Rizal added notes tending toshow that the Filipinos had been possessed of considerable culture andcivilization before the Spanish conquest, and he even intimated thatthey had retrograded rather than advanced un
der Spanish tutelage. Butsuch an extreme view must be ascribed to patriotic ardor, for Rizalhimself, though possessed of that intangible quality commonly knownas genius and partly trained in northern Europe, is still in his ownpersonality the strongest refutation of such a contention.
Later, in Ghent, he published _El Filibusterismo_, called by him acontinuation of _Noli Me Tangere_, but with which it really has nomore connection than that some of the characters reappear and aredisposed of. [10] There is almost no connected plot in it and hardlyany action, but there is the same incisive character-drawing andclear etching of conditions that characterize the earlier work. Itis a maturer effort and a more forceful political argument, henceit lacks the charm and simplicity which assign _Noli Me Tangere_to a preeminent place in Philippine literature. The light satireof the earlier work is replaced by bitter sarcasm delivered withdeliberate intent, for the iron had evidently entered his soul withbroadening experience and the realization that justice at the handsof decadent Spain had been an iridescent dream of his youth. Nor hadthe Spanish authorities in the Philippines been idle; his relativeshad been subjected to all the annoyances and irritations of pettypersecution, eventually losing the greater part of their property,while some of them suffered deportation.
In 1891 he returned to Hongkong to practise medicine, in whichprofession he had remarkable success, even coming to be lookedupon as a wizard by his simple countrymen, among whom circulatedwonderful accounts of his magical powers. He was especially skilledin ophthalmology, and his first operation after returning from hisstudies in Europe was to restore his mother's sight by removing acataract from one of her eyes, an achievement which no doubt formedthe basis of marvelous tales. But the misfortunes of his people wereever the paramount consideration, so he wrote to the Captain-Generalrequesting permission to remove his numerous relatives to Borneo toestablish a colony there, for which purpose liberal concessions hadbeen offered him by the British government. The request was denied,and further stigmatized as an "unpatriotic" attempt to lessen thepopulation of the Philippines, when labor was already scarce. Thiswas the answer he received to a reasonable petition after the homesof his family, including his own birthplace, had been ruthlesslydestroyed by military force, while a quarrel over ownership and rentswas still pending in the courts. The Captain-General at the time wasValeriano Weyler, the pitiless instrument of the reactionary forcesmanipulated by the monastic orders, he who was later sent to Cuba tointroduce there the repressive measures which had apparently been soefficacious in the Philippines, thus to bring on the interference ofthe United States to end Spain's colonial power--all of which inducesthe reflection that there may still be deluded casuists who doubtthe reality of Nemesis.
Weyler was succeeded by Eulogio Despujols, who made sincere attempts toreform the administration, and was quite popular with the Filipinos. Inreply to repeated requests from Rizal to be permitted to return tothe Philippines unmolested a passport was finally granted to him andhe set out for Manila. For this move on his part, in addition to thenatural desire to be among his own people, two special reasons appear:he wished to investigate and stop if possible the unwarranted use ofhis name in taking up collections that always remained mysteriouslyunaccounted for, and he was drawn by a ruse deliberately planned andexecuted in that his mother was several times officiously arrestedand hustled about as a common criminal in order to work upon theson's filial feelings and thus get him back within reach of theSpanish authority, which, as subsequent events and later researcheshave shown, was the real intention in issuing the passport. Entirelyunsuspecting any ulterior motive, however, in a few days after hisarrival he convoked a motley gathering of Filipinos of all grades ofthe population, for he seems to have been only slightly acquaintedamong his own people and not at all versed in the mazy Walpurgisdance of Philippine politics, and laid before it the constitutionfor a _Liga Filipina_ (Philippine League), an organization lookingtoward greater unity among the Filipinos and cooeperation for economicprogress. This _Liga_ was no doubt the result of his observations inEngland and Germany, and, despite its questionable form as a secretsociety for political and economic purposes, was assuredly a step inthe right direction, but unfortunately its significance was beyondthe comprehension of his countrymen, most of whom saw in it only anopportunity for harassing the Spanish government, for which all wereready enough.
All his movements were closely watched, and a few days after hisreturn he was arrested on the charge of having seditious literaturein his baggage. The friars were already clamoring for his blood, butDespujols seems to have been more in sympathy with Rizal than withthe men whose tool he found himself forced to be. Without trial Rizalwas ordered deported to Dapitan, a small settlement on the northerncoast of Mindanao. The decree ordering this deportation and thedestruction of all copies of his books to be found in the Philippinesis a marvel of sophistry, since, in the words of a Spanish writer ofthe time, "in this document we do not know which to wonder at most: theingenuousness of the Governor-General, for in this decree he implicitlyacknowledges his weakness and proneness to error, or the candor ofRizal, who believed that all the way was strewn with roses." [11]But it is quite evident that Despujols was playing a double game,of which he seems to have been rather ashamed, for he gave strictorders that copies of the decree should be withheld from Rizal.
In Dapitan Rizal gave himself up to his studies and such medicalpractice as sought him out in that remote spot, for the fame of hisskill was widely extended, and he was allowed to live unmolestedunder parole that he would make no attempt to escape. In companywith a Jesuit missionary he gathered about him a number of nativeboys and conducted a practical school on the German plan, at the sametime indulging in religious polemics with his Jesuit acquaintances bycorrespondence and working fitfully on some compositions which werenever completed, noteworthy among them being a study in English ofthe Tagalog verb.
But while he was living thus quietly in Dapitan, events that were todetermine his fate were misshaping themselves in Manila. The stone hadbeen loosened on the mountain-side and was bounding on in mad career,far beyond his control.