RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr The Author In 1950, being at the time Assistant Colonial Secretary in Hongkong, ‘Austin Coates made a study of Rizal's 1891-92 stay in the colony, interviewing people who had known Rizal or had memories of him. The author was a guest of the Philippine Government at the International Congress on Rizal, held at Manila in 1961. This biog- raphy was written during 1964-67. Born in London in 1922, son of the composer Eric Coates, he combined the early part of his writing career with work as an administrator, diplomat, and advisor on Chinese affairs, leaving government service in 1962. He is a Knight Grand Officer of the Order of Rizal, Philippines, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.José Rizal Madsid 0, RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr BY AUSTIN COATES SOLIDARIDAD PUBLISHING HOUSE 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manilap-65460 Reprinted and Exclusively Distributed by Solidaridad Publishing House 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manila Philippine Copyright, 1992 Solidaridad Publishing House Copyright © 1992 by Solidaridad Publishing House ‘This reprint has been authorized by Oxford University Press for sale in the Philippines only and not for export therefrom © Oxford University Press 1968 ISBN 971-536-1323, Contents List of Illustrations Page Inteoduction i I YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT 1861-1882 Childhood in Calamba ‘The Frailocracy Student of the Jesuits University of Santo Tomés Departure on a Mission Wr JOURNEY INTO LIGHT 1882-1887 ‘The Impact of the West . First Year in Madrid . ‘The Toasting Speech Final Year in Madrid Ophthalmic Studies in Paris and Heidelberg. Fulfilment in Berlin Noli Me Tangere and Departure from Europe mr THE STORM BREAKS 1887-1888 Return to the Twilight "The German Doctor’ Furore 30 40 3 65 n or 99 106 119 130 138wv STRUGGLE, DARKNESS, AND ACHIEVEMENT 1888-1891 1. Pacific Route to England 1, London—the Propaganda Movement 1 Literary Undertakings 2 Correspondence with Spain 3 Correspondence with the Philippines 4 Over the Channel uit, Paris and Morga’s Sucesos 1v, Brussels—the Anatomy of Sacrifice vy. Conflict in Madrid vi. Biarritz Interlude vu, El Filibusterismo, Resignation, and Exit v ON THE EVE 1891-1852 1. Hongkong—'the Spanish Doctor’ 1m. Visit to Sandakan ut. Preparation for Death 1v. Hero's Return, Arrest, and Deportation vI ‘THE DEFERMENT 1892-1896 1. Dapitan and the Jesuits 1. Scientific Works and School at Talisay tt Josephine Bracken vu ‘THE SIGNATURE OF DEATH 1896 1. Revolution u, Trial it, Ultimo Adiés, 29-30 December wv. The Good Opportunity y, An Aftermath of Controversy Conclusion Acknowledgments and Bibliography Index Maps East Asia, showing the position of the Philippines ‘The Philippines, showing places connected with the life of Rizal 283 294 308, 337 332 349) 363 379 The monogram on the title page was drawn by Rizal, and is reproduced by permission of the National Library, Manila.Illustrations José Rizal, Madrid, 1890 frontispiece Francisco Mercado facing p30 Teodora Alonso 30 The Mercado family home at Calamba 31 Portraits of Rizal, between 1872 and 1883 46 conor Rivera 7 6 Paciano Rizal Mercado 78 7 Narcisa Rizal-Lépez 7% Juan Luna, Rizal and Valentin Ventura in Paris ey josephine Bracken 4 Ferdinand Blumentrtt, 1888 8 Ferdinand Blumentritt, 1910 95 Rudolph Virchow 95 ‘The manuscript cover of Noli Me Tangere 158 Rizal in A Play Staged at the Ateneo de Manila 159 W. E, Retana 174 Reinhold Rost 174 Gertrude Beckett 175 Nelly Boustead 15 Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, Paris 1889 286 Lotter from Rizal to Blumentritt, 5 July 1890 287 Josephine Bracken 287 Rizal's cell in Fort Santiago 302 ‘The alcohol burner 302 Ultimo Adiés, the last page 303Introduction But 1am constant as the northern star, Of whose truc-fix'd and resting quality "There is no fellow in the firmament. Julius Caesar, Act i, Se. ‘Will my fate be that of water, never to be lost in nothingness? José Riza, Heidelberg, 6 August 1886‘TweRe WAS to be public execution, and consequently: the secets and buildings were bung with flags. A day of execution wos a fiesta Since first light a crowd of many thousands had been gather ing on the broad greensward facing the sea—gentlemen in poater hats and smart drill suits, with their ladies clad in their best, the hems of their long skirts dampened a little here and there by the dew which still lay on the grass. Tt seas the tropics’ apology for winter, the start of another swarm blue day, cloudless and still with at morning and evening ‘ry slight chill in the air, such as there was now. The sun had siready risen on the landward side, and as the minutes drew towards 7 am, the multitudinous voices of the crowd were hnished. The beat of an approaching drum announced the arrival of the condemned man. ‘The Europeans had the best vantage places, and being in general taller than the local people they tended to monopolize the view. Despite this disadvantage, however, a fairly large number of local people had come as well—men and women, the well-to-do, the fashionably europeanized, the prudent—to join their European masters in uttering patriotic cheers. For the death to be witnessed on this fine morning was the death of traitor, and not merely of a traitor but of the arch-traitor, described by the military judge who had tried him as ‘the principal organizer and living soul of the insurrection’. For four months the country had been gripped by revolution, It had not yet succeeded in penetrating the capital, but in the countryside there were widespread disturbances which the Europeans had hitherto been unable to suppress. With the ative in the country, his execution afforded a salutary oppor tunity of showing the natives where they stood. Today might ll prove to be a turning point, Thus the exhilarated atmos-INTRODUCTION phere, The date was 30 December 1896. The place was 8 pea, the extensive public park in the heart of Manil capital of the Spanish Philippines. The crowd was 50 dense, and there was so muck jockeyit for postion, that police arrangements broke down and prisoners ailtary escort, which should have been behind bi Pad to form fle on either side of him, forcing its way throu to the execution ground. Within the fairly wide corridor space thus created, what remained of the procession was 2 seamove through the mass of people with reasonable dignit First came the drummer. After him, flanked by two tall Spanis Jesuits in black souzanes and shovel-hats, came the lesser figut of the traitor. ‘Aged thirty-five, short and slender, pale after two months prison, he was impeccably dressed in European style, black wu Epotlessly white shirt and tie, and wearing a black derby by seitch in vogue at that time in Europe, His appearance wasalmot English in its formality and taste, But it was not tis that deg people's attention. Te was his features and expression, and Botmm dignity of his bearing. As could be seen at a glance, Seas no ordinary traitor to be jeered and howled at. AS he p There was silence, while people stared, some in surprise, other snith concern, and all with the uneasy sense of being confront by something they did not fully understand. ‘Most people have a preconceived idea of what a traitor lod like, It is natural to expect to detect features of malevoler or duplicity, o defiance, the wild stare of a misplaced visiona or the grimace of a swashbuckler who has lost out. About {itor there was nothing that could be preconceived. To beg ‘ith, his was an arrestingly interesting face. Apart from know that he was a man of the Far East, it would have been difficu} to define him racially, All that could have been said—and th ‘only by an astute observer—was that he was from one of 1 countries of South-East Asia, and bore indications of 1 part Malay, partly Chinese ancestry. Yet there was nothing hhim of the withdrawn Oriental, that character beloved of European imagination. His eyes, wide-spaced, thoughtful, ‘compelling in their truthfulness, came out to meet whomer ENTRODUCTION they looked at, as European eyes do. He bad very li Bo ee eel atte frm chin and perceptive lips, could be sensed at ance a mental finity to Europe, expressed through an Asian physique. This Gas aman who had passed far beyond diflerences of race and ution. Despite being a member of a subject race, it was the fice of a person the equal of any, expressive of intellectual honesty and insight, both in unusual measure. As the Madrid newspaper reports of the oceasion show, there were few Span- fbnds present that day who, once they had seen him, remained tinaware of these qualities, disconcerting as they found them. The umpression the pale young man conveyed was inescapable. The escort forced a way through to the cleared rectangle of cas, lined by troops, which was to be the place of execution, When the traitor had been conducted to the seaward end, in which direction the shot was to be fied, there was some discussion inaudible to bystanders, ‘Then those nearest to the trator drew back, the preparatory commands were barked out, tnd in the second of silence before the final order to fire, while people excitedly eraned over the shoulders of others fora glimpse ole scene, the ton fly audible sid in de, xy ois, ‘Contemerton ef? wie t The command, ‘The shot. People being pushed forward upon others in the surge to view the body. A curious silenee. ‘The orgunized cheer ofthe troops. The lead given tothe release of motion, And following this, the public cheers, the cheers, the "The living soul of the insurrection was dead As so often happens in the case of public cheering they were cheers illtimed. The shot which that crowd had just heard was, the shot which br anish empire it th sex which brought the Spanish expire in the Philipines The situation in the Philippines on 30 December 1896 was ‘catively simple, The insurgents had few ams and no source of ammunition. The Spaniards hed adequate military and naval forces to deal with the insurrection provided the government continued to enjoy a certain measure of Filipino public support.pxTRODUCTION ‘This last was important for mainly geographical reasons. TI Philippines, a complex archipelago of more than seven thousan islands, with in those days only very limited inter-island com: munications, presented singular obstacles to an_outrightl rnilitary control." Each well-populated island, even today, isi a sense a small country on its own, requiring a complete appa: ‘atus of government distinct from its neighbours. At that tim outright military control offered a commander the choi between a dispersal of his forces so extensive and disconnecte that in effect they ceased to be a unitary army, or concentratior of force in various population centres, lesser islands being left in the balance of popular goodwill. In December 1896 the Spanish military administration was in the process of regroupi from the former to the latter. Nor was goodwill entirely lacking—the goodwill, or possibly just the prudence, of such as came to witness the execution a cheer. But within days of 30 December on Luzon, the mai northern and ‘capital’ island, and within weeks throughout t entire Philippines, this situation changed, Ds. José Rizal, dl young ophthalmic surgeon who had been executed that day ‘was regarded by educated Filipinos as a genius, the architect an embodiment of theit country's aspirations. By the unedueat ‘he was regarded more simply as a kind of demi-god. By all ‘was recognized as the greatest Filipino who had ever liv He was also, ironically, the most understanding, patient, an influential friend Spain possessed in the Islands. Day after day following 30 December other victims wer brought forth from the torture chambers of Fort Santiago to b ‘executed in public. It was the dry season; stains were ‘washed away by rain, From end to end the grass of the Lune ‘was brown with dried human blood. But all these deaths, terrible as they were, did not make t same impact as did the execution of the young surgeon. Fort Spain had killed him, of all people, showed to every Filip from one end of the country to the other that Spain was bli to their needs, deaf to their pleas, and contemptuous of th “The length ofthe archipelago from north to south s equivalent to sistas to Morence Sram, or om London to angie. xviii INTRODUCTION claim to be treated as the equal of other human beings, gp pallet cere ice acces a a as though they themselves had been unforgivably insulted; and 3 produced revulsion against the tnmentor It was ¢naion- wide reaction which words could not express, deeply and Secretly fei le vee ten ple pes vital to the maintenance of the Spanish position, fell away. Even the prudent who had turned up to cheer found there was prudence in not being pro-Spanish, to be so having become in effect treasonable in « Filipino. From that moment Spanish rule was doomed. The death agony took another eighteen months, but in effect on 30 Decem- ber 1896, by a single shot, Spain erected her own sepulchre in advance of the demise A scant shaft of hope might have remained, though it would probably have dane no more than prolong the death agony, could further substantial military reinforcements have been obtained. But these were not forthcoming. Spain at this time ‘vas simultaneously endeavouring to suppress two insurrections on different sides of the globe, one in the Philippines, the other in Cuba. Because of greater Spanish public interest in Cuba, because of the island’s closeness to the United States, and because of the aggressive trend of American public opinion, strongly reflected in Congress, toward the continued Spanish presence in the Caribbean, Spain, when torn between the equally urgent demands of two of her overseas ‘province’, decided that the suppression of the Cuban revolt must be given priority. Besides which, the Spanish Government underestimated the ‘capacity of the Filipinos to wage rebellion with any measure of success. Spain in fact tended to underestimate the Filipinos in coehing. This was basally wat the Plppine rel was When the Governor and Captain-General ofthe Philippines (Geviaal Cath rruvige: tied tat le easel eee ments were virtually ignored, he resigned his command in April 1897. Under his successor, General Primo de Rivera, the Tebela were at last forced into reteat. But here the SpanishINTRODUCTION successes were partly due to dissension among the Filipino leaders. “The actual organizer and first leader of the rebellion was Andres Bonifaeio, a young, cool and determined idealist, capable ‘of inspiring men to follow him, yet who, as rebellion spread from town to town, found that not every tovin loyal to his cause accepted his leadership. Furthermore, boldly attempting objec- tives which were beyond the capacity of his forces, he suffered inital reverses, thereby incurring the criticism of being inade- {quate a8 a military commander, In this capacity the outstanding man thrown into prominence by the events of revolution was Emilio Aguinaldo, who, operating from bases in Cavite province, ‘obtained numerous military successes against the Spaniards ‘At a meeting of the revolutionary leaders in March 1897 ‘Aguinaldo was elected to direct the struggle in succession t0 Bonifacio, without whom there would have been no revolt Bonifacio, bitterly disillusioned by the perfidy of those whom be had regarded as his colleagues, cut loose with a number of men still loyal to him, refusing to acknowledge Aguinalda’s leadership. “The Spaniards were quick to take advantage ofthis favourable situation. As factionalism spread among the Filipino people, some loyal to Bonifacio, others to Aguinaldo, the rebel position became desperate, On 10 May 1897 Bonifacio, on Aguinaldo’s orders, was tracked down and shot. But this scarcely improved ‘matters; the rebels continued to retreat. By this time they had litde or no arms and ammunition; most of them fought with knives and staves; but they proved themselves able guerrilla fighters and had the great advantage of enjoying the support of the population. At the end of the year it was recognized on both 2 Jone Alejandrino, sevclutionary general and a balanced observer of events supported this questiontble action Ina letter tb Fesdinand Blumen {St dited 11 My 8p, be wrotes Agunaldo snot only good army man but slsos good ruler 4s he succonded, despite the seri diaension® that Broke atthe rank off vn ie aout the ny af fhe diferent elements of whicn te Hverators of the Palippunes ae comporcd Sometimes he made use of penceful means, while in other instances be esoTed to cnefgetic measures when circumstances warranted theit Use” ‘Glad Jose Alejandrino, La Souda del Sacre; trans. Jose M. Alejand- fine, The Price of Freedom, +945, INTRODUCTION des that it was stalemate, the Filipinos unable to prevail, the Spaniards unable to suppress them. Primo de Rivera and wainaldo signed a truce, the latter going into voluntary exile jn Hongkong. "The truce settled nothing, Rebel outbreaks continued, sporadically and becoming increasingly serious; and thus it ould undoubtedly have continued for years had not an extra- yrcous event lifted the struggle from being a remote colonial ifr, suddenly placing it on the stage of world history In February 1898 the United States battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbour. The explosion was almost certainly accidental, but the American public, going through a most 1! period of warmongering sentiment, inflamed by public ation over events in Cuba, was in no mood to treat it as, h. In stentorian terms the disaster was condemned as an Of Spanish treachery. On 19 April resolutions were intro- duced into Congeess demanding the independence of Cuba and the despatch of American forces to aid the Cuban rebels. Unwsisely Spain, instead of temporizing, accepted the challenge, and made a fatal declaration of war on the United States Tt was what Washington had been waiting for. With almost unseemly speed orders were sent to American naval commanders to attack Spain at her two most sensitive points, Cuba and the Philippines. On 1 May 1898 an American squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey entered Manila Bay, and without the loss of a man destroyed the entire Spanish fleet off Cavite. A similar disaster overtook the Spanish flet in Cuba, Dewey then had to await the arrival of land forces to complete the Spanish defeat. With his agreement Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, the Americans giving every outward indication of their intention that the country should become independent. With this encouragement, on 12 June 1898 the Filipinos declared their independence, Emilio Aguinaldo becoming President of \what is now known as the First Philippine Republic. One of the frst acts of the Republic was to declare 30 December a day of rest and reflexion in memory of Rizal, a commemoration hich despite every vicissitude hes been observed ever since xxiINTRODUCTION In the military ficld mopping-up operations proceeded swifll under Aguinaldo's direction. Within @ matter of wecks 1 only Spanish forces left in Luzon were penned in Manila at ‘Cavite, the two towns being cut off from one another. As reinforcement of American troops, Aguinaldo hoped, and country would be totally free. ‘Tt was a miscalculation, In July the land forces Dewey need began to arrive, and the Americans moved to the accomplis ‘ment of their real design, which had nothing whatever to do wit Philippine independence. For the United States had caught tl prevailing great power disease, and had resolved to embark up empire. Secret negotiations were entered into between Dewey a the Spanish authorities, and on 13 August, an agreed date, aft a face-saving exchange of fire, American forces entered Manil from the citadel of which the colours of Spain were lowered fa ever. The Filipino forces, waiting for a signal to enter the cit swere ordered by the Americans to remain outside. Only then di ‘Aguinaldo realize that he and his men had been dupes in aw game and by no means a simple one, since had the America not taken Manila, the Germans, with the requisite forces poi and afloat in the China Sea, would certainly have done so inst ‘At the time of the peace negotiations, held in Paris, Aguinal made despairing efforts to obtain international recognition Philippine independence; his representatives were not titted to the conference room. It is at this point that can seen at its clearest the significance of that execution two y carfier, and the importance of the complete psychologi estrangement of the Filipinos from Spain which it produc Had Rizal been alive in 1898 he would unquestionably: ha rallied Philippine sympathy for defeated Spain, thus placing exceedingly complex obstacle to the realization of America imperial ambitions. The United States would doubtless, int ‘mood of that time, have acquired some form of favoured posit ‘or tutelage in the Philippines, but it could never have been i the extreme form it actually took, As it was, the Filipis friends of neither the United States nor Spain, found themselv diplomatically isolated, their leader reduced in international ey‘ to the status of a bandit chief. INTRODUCTION In December 1898, by the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines were declared to be American territory. For two years Aguinaldo commanded a military struggle against American forces in the Jslands, but one by one his principal officers were captured, and in March 1901 he himself was taken, bringing his Republic to an end. On 4 July that year, with the inauguration of American Civil government, the Philippines became, in effect if not in raine, a colony of the United States of America. ‘The Americans, quick to discover the political and literary ‘works of Rizal, and to appreciate the immense esteem in which the as held by his countrymen, recognized in him an invaluable link between the Spanish period end their own that had sueceed- cd it. To many Americans it seemed that Rizal’s aims and their ‘own were one, On 7 April 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at Fargo, North Dakota, went so far as to say In the Philippine Islands the American government has tried, and is ing, to carry out exactly what the greatest genius and most revered ot ever known in the Philippines, José Rizal, steadfastly ade ocated. With the coming of the Americans twentieth-century ait blew into the Islands. ‘The new rulers quickly rid the country of the Catholic ecclesiastical rule under which it had suffered solong, Successive changes of President in Washington, coupled With the lack of an equivalent to the British India Office or Colonial Office as a means of ensuring continuity of policy, rendcred the complete fulfilment of Theodore Roosevelt's aim {ess impressive than its enunciation; but in a leisurely way, and With increased momentum between the two world wars, the Americans introduced various measures of internal self-govern- ‘ment which would almost surely have led to complete independ- ence, This leisurely trend of affairs was brought to an abrupt fend in December 1941, when Japan, as part of her aim to ‘stablish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, invaded the Philippines and subjected the country to a rule of tyranny 2nd barbarism arousing universal detestation. In the last months ref C84 by Austin Cra, Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rival, Manila,INTRODUCTION of hostilities, in 1944-5) the Japanese mounted a desperate Struggle against the returning Americans, and Manila was fought steect by stcet. Asa result t was a war-ravaged country swith much of its eapital city in ruins which on 4 July 1946 was Jecorded independence by the United States, an unsatisfactory independence, but onc on which both sides at that time were determined | The ceremony took place on the Luuneta; and as President Truman's special emissary read the deed of independence, ihe did so before the statue of Rizal, which that day witnessed, ton behalf of the man himself che fulfilment of one of the main purposes of his life's work. Outside his own country Rizal is chiefly known forthe poem hho wrote in the death cell on the eve of his exceution, and which vray smuggled out of Fort Santiago hidden in an alechel burner. "The poctn was written on small slip of paper and it was nether titled, nor dated, nor signed. It has come to be knovin as the Citimo Adiés, and holds an assured plac: inthe Spanish literature ofthe period, It istobefound in numerous anthologiesof Spanish Verse ond—in Spanish or in translation—in every anthology Of the poetry of patriotism worthy of the name. The poem, feven in translation, gave its author international recognition ‘he a poem of patriotism it is distinguished by a complete absence of jingoism, or scorn for enemies, or the appeals to glory Svhich too often make this kind of verse tedious; and in that it fells the exact circumstances in which it was witten, it has a powerful human appeal, Here is a man condemned to die for fhe cause of his country, and in the final hours before dawn, twhen he will beled forth to execution, writing his last farewell to country, family and friends. Like all poems, it suffers in ‘translation. In Spanish the compulsion of its message and the flow of the lines, some af which are of exceptional felicity and sonority, combine to make it, in its genre, a poem of particular distinction, This is to treat it in its Spanish contest, In its ‘feian context—and itis after all an Asian poemm—it is unique in quality and in the nobleness of its expression. Among all the ExTRODUCTION corse in whatever language inspired by the Asian independence Jovements there is nothing that can be compared with it. In his own country Rizal is revered as a national hero, and js known for a mass of other writings, in particular for his two ovis of contemporary Philippine life, Noli Me Tangere and bl Filibusteriomo, which are taught in all colleges. His place in his country’s history has also been fully assessed. He was the tan who single-handed awakened the Philippine people to tutional and politcal consciousness, an extraordinary achieve- trent which will he examined in what follows Yt im the panorama of Asian history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries his position is less clear, and in need of definition At the time of his birth, European power and influence in Asin had been growing and spreading for more than three hhsdeed years; but forthe most part his was a slow, haphazard « its principal motivation being trade. The Indian Mutiny 4:57 matks the end of this long epoch in Europe's relations ‘sith Asia, From 1858 onwards a new determination and energy infused European activity in the East, and with this came a new principle, the territorial acquisition of empire, still principally {or purposes of trade, but also with the aim of bringing Western forms of government and education to peoples whom the West considered to be either barbarous or decadent, or both. During this period, from 1838 to 19e0—almost the exact period of Rizal’s life;—Britain consolidated her power throughout the Indian sub-continent, added Burma to her empire, and by means of protectorates extended her influence to embrace Malays, Sarawak and Sabah (North Borneo). Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were absorbed by France, Japan was drawn out of her long seclusion, and Thailand signed her first treaties with Western nations. Ceylon was already ruled by Britain, Indonesia by the Netherlands, and the Philippines by Spain, China, rent by internal rebellion and misruled by the tottering Manchu dynasty, managed to maintain a semblance of independence; bu by 1898 every port of any usefulness on the China coast was funcr European control. The last decade of the nineteenth Jesmsury dawned on an Orient which had become a suburb ofINTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION and nations must be regarded by Europe as equals, an idea whch tthe Europe colonial power of that tins was in Vusying degrees pretentious, preposterous, or abhorrent. “The Philippine Revolution of 1896, which Rizal's works inspired but which he was in fact opposed to, knowing it to be premature and inadequately organized, was the frst genuinely ational revolt by an Asian people against a colonial power. ‘That it was genuinely national in character was due entirely to Rizal, the first exponent of Asian nationalism, - ‘His execution was reported in newspapers throughout the ‘world, In most countries the fact that Spain had felt obliged to execute, as leader of the rebellion, a 35-year-old doctor, a rman of peace and evidently a person of some local distinction, shoséed simply that there was something rorten in the state of the Spanish Philippines. But this came as no surprise. It was ‘what most intelligent readers would have assured In Asia reaction was more acute. Since the establishment of Buropean power, the sentient minority in each country of the East had become absorbed in a phase of critical self-examination, which atthe yearn, pac Deame, ineningly widepread The power and efficiency of Europe had at this time induced state of affairs in which everything from the West was assumed tobe superior. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century contrary voices were heard, challenging this assumption, In Ind che of ie exist ene ef change overs Behe Absningranath Tagore rok company with dhe Indian atts wo for more than fifty yeas had been uninspiredlyéitating uropean styles, and launched out into a distinetive style of his own, inspired by Indian sources. In China the first modera scolars had the temerity to desare thatthe philosophy and aod ais of China were every whit as valableas thos of Europe inaugurating the ra later tobe personified philsophy by iu Shik and in painting by Ch’i Pai-shih, both of whom invested old forms with a new vitality. qbatin the poi field there was hesitancy. The East which 1 Europeans had overpowered had been a world of kings Burope, The real capitals of East Asia were London, Pari ‘Amowrdam, and Madrid. In the entire vast area lying bet Guluchistan’ and the islands of the Pacific, only Japan Thailand precariously maintained a status independent oft direct or indirect European control prevailing everywhere el Ti was precisely this same period which gave birth to the who by their lives and works were to render it impossible f wetonialisin and Western exploitation to take a long lease on 1 Orient, OF these men four great individuals stand pre-emine Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, St ‘Yat-sen, and José Rizal. All four were born within a few jf cach other; Rizal and Tagore were born in the same ye4 $6r, Sun Yat-sen in 1866, and Gandhi in 1869. All fo Tpeovbed deeply the new learning of the West, and broug! Wenternctrained intellect to bear upon the problems of Asi IAll four challenged and questioned the West in the West's o jerme, a process which invigorated a largely supine contin« tea ultimately-—because the West could understand what t said, and it hurt—sapped the self-confidence of the colons powers, who tll then had believed in the supreme rightness their misson, Between them these four men, aided and emulat by others, created a new climate of thought in Asia tending the inevitable attrition of colonialism, 2 movement to which colonial powers themselves inadvertently contributed by 1 jnvasions of 1941. When the Japanese were finally thrust ba into their own islands, the climate of thougbt the four men ‘created dominated Asia completely, and the colonial pow self-confidence, despite their victory, had evaporated. (Of the four men Rizal, though the least known, is in ways the most remarkable. OF an. extreme sensibility, political ideas matured at an unusually early age. Long Tagore was anything other than a critical acceptant of Brit rule in India, when Sun Yat-sen was a student and G: just a schoolboy, Rizal was enunciating clearly, in sper ‘published articles and letters, the eoncepts, entirely his ‘Of a new and completely different relationship between Bur ‘and Asia—the relationship of today—in which Asian p " Absnindracath ‘Tagore (1874-1981), nephew ofthe poet RebindramthINTRODUCTION whose subjects had been their feudal property, to be elevat chastened, or conseribed for war at w ‘come new ideas, of nationhood and individual rights, but wi ‘caste, clan and regional differences to be reckoned with ‘was difficult to see what application these new ideas co have in Asia, The word nation had entered many vocabulari there was a desire among the sentient that theie countries become nations in the Western sense. But few were certain such desires were not academic dreams, so remote from achi ment did they seem in the social context of the Bast. T! hesitancy is exemplified in India in the degree to which country’s earliest political institutions owed their origin British initiative and their membership to British support. ‘Alone among Asian countries, Japan after the Meiji Resto tion of 1868 had transformed herself into a nation on Euroy lines, above all armed with European weapons, which the ¥« before Rizal's death had been used with effect in the Si Japanese War. But an aggressive nationhood such as Japan ‘was not exactly what the rest of Asia sought. Furthermore Jap: hhad for many centuries been a country unified under one gover ‘ment; the transposition from the feudal to the modern was this extent less complex than in countries such as India, unifi by a colonizing power but traditionally divided. ‘The Philippines on the other hand, prior to the Spani occupation, had had a background more related to that of I and South-East Asia, Historical research suggested that Islands had once been part of Further India, with rajas, Hind style courts, and Sanskritic writing. It was thus presumed to ‘a country with problems of national adaptation similar to tho of India, the largest and most significant of the Asian natiot subject to European rule. In India, which was awakening politically in advance of neighbours, it was the national aspect of the Philippine rebellio an aspect which Rizal as a Western-trained doctor seemed aptly to typify rebellion were remote, the Philippines being separated from rest of Asia by the twin barriers of distance and the Spani language. But Rizal's death gave the revolt dramatic public . With the West hi the nineteenth century, perhaps of any A Brapher can scarcely be accused of exaggeration in saying that thece are times when it seems as if everything his subject ever ‘83, id, wrote or thought in his shor life hus been recorded which attracted attention. The events of 1 INTRODUCTION and the message it conveyed was clear. ‘Those few in each subjected country who had dared to dream of a future day when European power would be overthrown saw that they were not alone. There were others. They might speak other languages, and {nliabit countries little known; but in their reactions to colonial rule they were kin, For the radical it became possible cautiously to believe, for the first time, that to entertain the idea of putting an end t0 European supremacy was to be in tune with one of those movements that inexplicably sweep across continents, Abore all, the national character of the Philippine revolt, a character which the unsuccessful struggle for independence against the Americans between 1898 and 1901 served to confirm, signalized what till then had been regarded by many Asian intellectuals with doubt: that the East's feudal kingdoms and principalities, expunged or emasculated by the colonial powers, \were capable of reshaping themselves as modern nations under their own national leaders. The revolt failed. The colonial epoch moved unconcernedly oon, But it was not forgotten, and among the discerning, neither was Rizal or what he stood for. To Asia's growing number of nationalists the events of 1896 in the Philippines became a land- tmark, a conclusion held increasingly as, under the Americans, the Philippines switched from Spanish to English, and more information became available concerning the rebellion and its nature. Gandhi spoke of Rizal asa forerunner and asa martyr in the cause of freedom, and Nehru, in his prison letters to his daughter Indira, recognized the significance of the growth of Philippine nationalism and, if inaccurately, Rizal’s part in it. Though the revolt failed, the idea of modern nationhood as a Practical possibility in Asia had been born. This was due to Rizal, and constitutes his place in history. Rizal's is the most highly documented life of any Asian of ever. His bio-INTRODUCTION ‘Rizal was himself responsible for this, such being the singul attraction of his personality and the aura of destiny which s rounded him, and of which his European friends were as scious as were his own countrymen. People kept his lett however unimportant their subject matter, in the belief they would one day be of interest and significance. People fact had a tendency to kecp anything he gave them, no mat how trivial. Even letters describing him or referring to him we equally carefully treasured by Filipinos, and much of ‘material has survived. As a result he can be seen at almost his life from many angles and with unusual clarity himself was a prolific letter-writer and a fairly regular diar and he early formed the habit of keeping people's letters ¢! interested him, adding still further to knowledge of the recipies All of this is of course of assistance to a biographer, but also presents problems. Quite apart from the fact that Riz conducted his daily coreespondence in six languages! and that ‘write about him accurately requires being familiar with prevale conditions in at least ten different countries on three continent there is the engaging difficulty that much of his writings are strictly speaking irrelevant in an account of his political lif are highly attractive and of great intrinsic interest—in particul the travel diaries, with their fascinating account of the reac ‘of a young Filipino seeing for the first time the great cities the modern world as they were in those days. Some of which they have surrounded him. In a biography of this le space does not permit more than a few fleeting extracts f these subsidiary writings, but it is hoped that what little quoted will serve to give an impression of the whole, Li Rabindranath ‘Tagore, whom in the multfariousness of self-expression he closely resembled, Rizal was a consum artist, able to create things of beauty out of almost anything, litle statue made of a piece of wood someone else had thro 1 Spanish, German, English, French, Tazalos, Habis, INTRODUCTION away, @ pencil sketch in the margin of a letter, or two lines in a diary completely evoking a situation and an atmosphere. Although the first truly notable political figure of modern Asia, ihe dealt in polities only out of necessity; at heart he was a scholar and artist, To readers unfamiliar with the Philippines two explanati are du. In what fellows quite a numberof ceferenes wll be found to Filipinos whose names are virtually unknown outside their own country, and who in these pages will be found living obscurely—as Rizal himself did—in various European capitals, a situation which initially suggests that they were persons of no importance. Actually, as Filipinos today freely ximit, this particular generation of men was perhaps the most gifted their country has ever produced, and nearly every one of those who will be mentioned here holds an honourable place in his country’s history. ‘The extraordinary fact is that during this period any Filipino of merit or distinction was virally obliged to live abroad. In the Philippines under Spanish rule hhe was not wanted and could achieve nothing. It was even worse than this. A Filipino of merit was an object of fear to many Spaniards. ‘The second point is that, particularly in the early chapters, the reader may feel disconcerted to find so little to suggest an (Giclee 1 wl ee alent mx in somes somewhere in Europe. Here it must be remembered that the Philippines, at this time, had been a Christian and considerably ‘uropeanized country—hispanicized is a more accurate word— for the best part of three hundred years: and nowhere was this more noticeable than inthe upper classes of Filipino society to wihich the Rizal family belonged. Their reactions and thoughts, {isis manners and way of life, were far more European than Piette. Their clothes, the long skirts for women and trousers Set were basally European, with various minor adapra- ns deriving largely from China. Their houses and furniture ere very European inde often v it Wog.2e0% European indeed and often very comfortable, with ar] instead of glass for window panes. Their cuisine Owed a great deal to the Chinese cuisine of Fukien province,INTRODUCTION and, Chinese style, all dishes except sweets were served taneously; but in an upper-class family spoons, knives and for were used, and etiquette was European. ‘Perhaps the simplest way to envisuatize the scene is to thi of a tropical Europe, its people golden-skinned and with slight Oriental features, living in houses in which the most import thing is to keep cool, a land of flowers and music, where peo are hot-tempered and romantic, where manual labour is tremendous strain and life simply must move rather slow ‘where every window looks out upon lush vegetation, and wh is nearly always extremely humid and extremely hot But beyond the vivid green of huge banana leaves the chur bells ring; when all the Oriental faces of the family are gather at table, Father says a Latin grace; and later at night, when’ is still hot, all good children go to bed when they are told I Youth in Medieval Twilight 1861-82 «TL wguld give aaything to get over noha deat Rizal, 1879: Memorias de un estudiante de ManilaI Childhood in Calamba + of country and family—early talents—phyrca dicipln a |G ian Pa eain pe ‘Tue Puttirprve IsLANos, as ruled by Spain, have been described. ss 4 missionaries’ empire, Not so completely as Paraguay, yet in chat direction, the archipelago was a kingdom of God—the God who, as the Emperor Charles V intimated to posterity, spoke Spanish, The Islands were regarded as an integral part of Spain. In order to define Spain itself it was necessary to say Peninsular Spain, or simply the Peninsula. National loyalty meant loyalty to Spain; but His Most Catholic Majesty being closely connected with the Church—sometimes one would have thought with God even,—loyalty in the Philippines was not national in the usually accepted sense, Theoretically this was a society of children of God. Loyalty expressed itself a8 loyalty to the Church and its priests; disloyalty was assessed in relation to disobedience or indifference tothe Church and its priests. Love of country, even to a brown-skinned Filipino deprived of any chance of learning Spanish, meant love of Spain. As oppor- ‘unites for Filipinos to travel to Spain—or indeed anywhere— Were virtually non-existent, love of country was a subject of more than usually academic flavour, Like national loyalty, it as 2 concept devoid of practical application to the Filipino inhabitants of the Islands. For the greater part of the three hundred years of Spanish tule no outside influence penetrated the country. There was hardly any foreign trade. Once a year a galleon came from “Mexico bearing gold to finance the civil government; it returned ‘sully with a eargo of products from China, The Chinese of Manila traded by junk with their native and, but their position 3YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT was insecure. Frowned on by the Church as usurers a devil-worshippers, and by the civil government as a disafl ity incipiently plotting revolt, they were subjeet severe restrictions, and were not infrequently massacred. ‘The Spanish empire in the Philippines, founded by 1 systematie Spanish occupation of the Islands begun in had developed on the basis of ideas prevalent in Spain at t epoch, ideas which in many respects were even then antique comparison with those parts of Europe that experienced 1 Reformation. No foreign or up-to-date influences had be allowed to reach the Islands, the most remote of Spain’s ove seas possessions, and Spanish rule there had continued much it had begun. The country had been largely christianized, a to some extent hispanicized, but as one writer has put it withot undue exaggeration:! ‘The Filipinos in the last half of the nineteenth century were Orientals but medieval Europeans—to the credit of the at Castilians but t0 the discredit of the later Spaniards, ‘The Filipinos af the rcmoter Christian barrioe . . were i customs, beliefs and advancement substantially what the descendant fof Legaspi's followers might have been had these been shipwreck fon the sparsely inlabited islands of the Archipelago and had th settlement remained shut off from the rest of the world No country in the East, it could with reason be said, was; more improbable arena to be the birthplace ofthe first expon of nationalism in Asia; and the observer of history is at onc compelled to wonder What childhood influences—for his i matured when he was very young—could have induced evolution of such ideas, of which the first and most fundament was the concept of a Philippine patriotism. From various shi pices of carly writing, from his memoirs written as an unde graduate (published posthumously), and from one or f articles and letters in which he reminisced about his earl days,» fairly elear impression of his childhood thinking emerg Against such an intellectual void of a background it possesses special interest » Craig, op, eit CHILDHOOD IN CALAMBA José Rizal was born on 19 June 1861 at Calarba in the Philip- pine province of Laguna, about ten hours by pony-trap south- ward from Manila, Calamba, then a town of between three and four thousand inhabitants, lay in the heart of a region of agricul- ‘ural prosperity, the flat lands around it producing sugar and rice, its orchards being stocked with a rich variety of tropical fruits, The region forms part of what is called ‘the rice basket’ ‘of the Philippines, the most productive area in the country. Calamba’s landmark in the plain is Mount Makiling, which rises in lonely grandeur, its shape as pronounced as that of a solcano, just south of the town. The rear windows of the Rizal house faced Mount Makiling, which, depending on the ibility, at times seemed so imminently near as to be almost {ing the house, and at all times compelled attention to the wonders of nature, which is where the boy's constructive thinking started. Ac the end of the town lies another natural phenomenon, the inland lake Laguna de Bay, with its ish traps and catamarans, an aquatic life markedly at odds with that of the fertile fields about the town, With its unusual distances—in places itis so Wide that water stretches 10 the horizon—and its waves which when the wind blows are almost like those ofthe sea, it attracted the boy froman early age. One of his political articles, written years later, contains a sentence relating to this time:? ‘On the fine sand along the shores of the lake of Bay we spent Jong hours of our childhood thinking and dreaming about what might be bbevond, on the other side of the waves ‘The writing is in the polemical style of Spanish politics which he felt obliged to adopt in Spain, but the content is plain, His student memoirs show that at an early age his love of ‘ature became discriminating. In the rear compound of his parents’ house were some fruit trees. These he quickly learned the names of, treating each tree as if it were a personal friend, leeds, pond in Le Sader, Jems sg. Bue here cthermtac’ cated all tanalations inthis vie arte biographer a, the languages of the orginal 3‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT He admired with a discernment which contained the rudiment ‘of both an artistic and a scientific appreciation the differes attributes and special qualities of each trec, and the same of wide variety of birds coming to nest in the trees at evenin Everything in the animal and plant world pleased and intrigue him, giving him a sense of homeliness; and it is from here, these loves of a child’s life, growing into a love of the count side in general, that evolved the love of country which was bbe the impelling mark of the man, From the same simple begi rings he developed an interest in botany and zoology whi endured throughout his life, and which in his years of exi became an occupation and a solace. By all accounts he was an attractive little boy, with his wid spaced eyes and frank, open expression beneath a mop of bla hair which insisted on growing out straight in all dicectic But perhaps because he was very frail he was never a child other children arc; he was quiet and thoughtful, always observer than participant; and almost as soon as be could us his hands he began to create things. Had he been born in Euro} people would have said he was almost certainly destined for career in the arts. In the Spanish Philippines no such ca existed, thus no one could sty what he would do, His father, Francisco Mercado," was a prosperous s planter and land-holder whose house—large and strong, wit cearthquake-proof foundations, and built by himself—was best in the town. Situated on the central of Calamba's the parallel streets, the house stood next to the parish church: massive and imposing, as were most of the churches in. Philippines—beyond which were the municipal offices, sturd (CHILDHOOD IN CALAMBA «rected in stone in the enduring but intimidating style which the Spaniards had brought with them from their mother country. ‘The whole town was part of an estate owned by the Dominicans ‘who, here as in many other parts of the Islands, derived much of their wealth from rent. Like many Filipino families, the Rizals were of mixed racial origin. In the direct male line their earliest known ancestor was a Chinese who migrated to the Philippines from the Fukien city of Changchow around 1690 and became a Christian, marry- jing a well-to-do Chinese Christian girl of Manila. Subsequent generations, resident at Bifian, a Laguna town some miles north fof Calamba, married Chinese mestizas—persons of mixed Filipino and Chinese ancestry. On his mother's side Rizal had Spanish, Chinese and Filipino blood, with even a line of Japanese ancestry. The Spanish authorities, with a European taste for legal niceties which did not always equate with Philip. pine actuality, described the Rizals as a Chinese mestizo family, but in fact in 1861 they were completely Filipino, and had been for a hundred years or more? Francisco Mercado was the first member of the family to setile at Calamba. A younger son, he had left his native Biflan, here there was not enough land for each son to make a good livelihood, and had come to Calamba, where by steady industry he had worked his way up to being the foremost figure in the community. He was a quiet, dignified, serious-minded man, hospitable and much respected. His father and his grandfather before him had served as chief town official—eapitén—of Biftan, being appointed to the post by the Spanish authorities; and with this background of proven integrity and loyalty to the Spanish administration, Francisco was one of those mch 1 The family surname was Mercado. In 1850, when the use of sur sess ade compuizoy fp the Phtnpaes, Frcaco Meade ba The opportuni of establishing is name as Real, orginally Ric, mes The green of sos growth, of the green of renewal, which as farmer Considered more apgeapriste than the name Mercado, meaning « mark flnce which his father and grandfater had used, Hix rues wa tl Ey the Spanish authonten, wh allocated surnames ag they chose rea ‘ving rediculous naines to such a8 they Wwisbed to humiliate In this {fhe Mercato family continued to use the name Rizal but a subsidia ‘The family geadualy came tobe knowe ao the Rizal family because oft tons fame, sid for convenience they wil be referred to throughout are Se el eee ea een liees ee oe eee ee ee on ee ee Ear ee aes ae aT nae meee ae eee Sionsibrpant Stns tote ory cepa ce pire af mee weenie alee othe Tas Space Soe agian SS ae cat mt ir ead 6‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT rare in a colonial society who mixed with Spaniards adi trators, friars, and army officers—almost as an equal, as father and grandfather had done. Spanish officials passit through and obliged to spend the night at Calamba would st at Francisco's house, and the family consistently kept on terms with the local alealde mayor (usually a mestiz0) the alférest of the Civil Guard, who, as the immediate repe sentatives of Spanish rule, were frequent visitors to the ho ‘The Rizal family thus enjoyed locally a privileged positia ‘being little exposed to the caprice and arrogance which for m: Filipinos were the distinguishing marks of Spanish officialdo A practical man of few words, Franciseo Mercado had hi reasonably good education, starting at the local Latin sche at Bifian and going on to the College of San José in Manila. the time of the birth of his second son he was forty-three hhad been married for thirteen years. His wife was a remarkal ‘woman, one of the best-educated Filipinas of the day, who addition to bearing eleven children had the reputation of bei ‘one of the best business brains in Calamba ‘Teodora Alonso was born of a nationally prominent family also from Bifan, of which her father’ was municipal capi when the Philippines were accorded any political representati was a décoré of the Spanish Crown.* Unusual in an age wh 2 Lieutenant "Ordinary Filipinos in their dealings with Spaniards, whether cleric lay, were alsn expoact fp numerous petty Farman of ical Fee Pl spoke Spans, there beng mo f ‘ort of those who cauld speak a the Spaniards afected to conser an insult spoke't'= Spaniard in Spanish the later would vary reply na nage, or else wld coneempttanuay repeat the Filipine’s wort, im ing his accent When two Spars were present on such an ocction ‘would comerimes engage in ridiculous conversations of mimicry uned Ihombled Fibpino reverted to his native tongve He entertained che scholarly and erudite Sic John Bowring. to, f Hongkong, wireed the Philips ‘and through @ triumphal arch Wwe reached heen ofa rich masta, whoen we Found decorated with Spanish ved ‘which ha been gcunted to is father hofore him. Fle spoke Enalish, havi cHTLDHOOD IN CALAN surents did not trouble much about girls’ education, Veodora ad been seat to the Dominican College of Santa Rosa in Sleanila, and again unusual in that age, spoke excellent Spanish, Speaking of his schooldays, Rizal later wrote of his mother’s caried talents: And she is nevertheless no ordinary woman; she is acquainted with fezature, and speaks Spanish etter than I'do; she used to correct tis poems and gave me wice advice when I was studying rhetoric; She 18 a mathemtaticiaa, and las read a great many books, As well as running the house smoothly and giving her children jncir first lessons, she helped Francisco with his land-holdings snd was in business in her own right, cunning a small lour-mill, curing hams, dyeing cloth, and managing a medicine and sgencral goods store. At the time, the birth of José, her seventh child and second son, was remarkable only for the fact that he was a difficult birth and turned out to be a pale and sickly child with an under- seed body and unusually large head. Later—much later—an vation made at his baptism at the parish church came to membered, ‘The priest—a Filipino and a family friend— roticing the unusual size of the child’s head, warned ‘Teodora Monso to be careful lest the child fall down or hit his head against anything. “Take good care of this child,” he said. ‘Some day he will be a great man.’ Teodora did not pay much equally, and like many fond clined to believe that any of ob attention. She loved her children and sensible mothers was disin- them had special virtues. It was most vers lange one—gave alfondant ars of dete dutention, The spokes were ail nod taste, and the sreeablencss. Cieat Fee educated at Calcutta, upd his Niger dat he ad sued cemitare, the bey she tables, the languid, rosy-cheeked, with such an enchanting and provocative sinile that revealed some very lovely teeth, a sylphelike air, an alluring je ne sais quoi emanating from her entire being. ‘Thus he described her four years later, when he had recovered. Tt was a very litle idyll. Filipino society, when it came to young ladies receiving the attentions of gentlemen admirers, ‘was as strictly proper as the society of Victorian England. No Filipino family could have been stricter than the Rizals, and added to this young José was developing as person of artistically sensitive restraint. Tt was a situation that did not make for adventures. Central to the idyll was the young lady's presentation to José of an artificial rose which she pretended someone else had made when really she herself had made it specially for him. IV University of Santo Tomas Segunda Catigbac—decision to teary axon Bond betcen Real and his ohare ‘Two Mowris later, far fom finding the world waiting for at what was then the Philippines’ sole institution of lensing. the Dominican University of Santo Tomas, is mother had been strongly in sty farther. If sbe had ear been uneling t coteode tear was anything special about her younger son, his tiurapho at, ‘Aenco had obliged her to recognize that she had prod here a child of extraordinary intellectual gifts; and like wise mother in such circumstances in the Philippines of days, she was afraid. If José continued to stady he would in tnd fall into the trap of rising too high for the flay” li AAs was privately but widely said in the countey at that ‘was the well-educated who were the fist to be regarded enemies, and who ran the greatest risk of ending the+ lives, Bagumbayan Field before a fring squad os DoU send him to Manta” Tetora sid dexperstely, en on to re, itv aoe oes on to lean more, it will lad to And this was one of the best-edueated women in the cou Speaking. Something in the way she sad it made ve scent him like a prophecy. He asked himself later whether porta mathe’ hear has double vison’Then in his own word er Rept silent, but my brother ied me to Ma despite my mothers tears? He arrived a somewhat unwilling student, sil un Tia he wanted to doin life, and thus undecided what subj " * esYOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT ‘It was the signal of love, and like every first love it made an. pervading impression. For weeks he could think of little but Segunda, Though arrangements were already procees towards her formal engagement to the man she event ‘married, she with delicate indirectness, but unmistakably, it clear to José that he was still at liberty to speak if he wis For the young man it was heady wine. ‘Yet something held him back. 1 formed the design of keping silent and, until seeing geaterps of sympathy Between us, neither subjecting myscl to her yoke Aeclaring rac t her ‘Throughout the cfosing months of 1877 the idyil contin under heavy chaperonage, until it was time to go home for Christmas vacation. Clearly Segunda hoped to leave Manilai ‘company with her admirer, the route to her home town lyi through Calamba. But when he came to say goodbye to her college it was discovered that she was leaving on the Saturday, while he had made arrangements to depart a ‘earlier. Unwilling to disappoint his parents, he said he could change his plans, but would see her when she passed thr Calamba. She said nothing, but she became pensive and raised her eyes! os e pensi cr He had made a mistake, and knew it. ‘That was the fist night and the frst time that I fele an anguish, inquietude conforming with love, if not with jealousy, perhaps: ‘cause I saw that I was separating from her, perhaps because a milli obstacles woud se between us, so that my nascent love was in ing and seemed to ‘Vigour in the struggle. From Tne char fved hese ti ny own wy tat to say, different from other loves that Uhave heard mentioned. When the Saturday came he had a white horse saddled rode out to & point where he knew the Catigbac family, who ‘come some way to meet their daughter, must pass. father, in the first of a procession of pony-traps, reco José and invited him to come with them to Lipa. José him, and ‘T was going to follow them for I was riding a pre 2 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS good horse. Then inthe next vehicle came Segunda, with her Eater and other college girls she greeted me smiling and waving her handkerchief; 1 simply Ses Fy hat and tad nothing 'A friend in the third vehicle again invited him to go with them, But in the critical moments of my life always I have acted against ‘by disposition, obedient to different purposes and to ponderous Teubte 1 spurred my horse and took another road without having ‘hosen it, exclaiming: This is ended thus. ‘The next two nights he spent, together with a friend, visiting ‘an unmarried gisl older than we were’, and who lived ina litle house of her own. She was fair, with seductive and attractive eyes. She, or we, talked shout love, but miyheart and my thought followed [Segunds] through the night to her town. If the filthiest corpse had told me that she [kewise was thinking of me, I would have kissed it out of gratitode His father found out about these nocturnal visits, and sternly prohibited any more of them. Tn his fife the idyll of Segunda Catigbac is of only very slight significance. Its intcrest lies in the fact that ofall his loves itis the only onc of which he himself has left a written deserip- tion. From this it is possible to observe at fairly close range what might otherwise seem a baffing quality in most of his relation ships with women; that in respect of love, marriage, or any kind of emotional entanglement, there was what can only be tard force that held him back, When he described his first love he was still only twenty, and was not ‘yet fully aware of the nature of this element of seff-restraint. But in what he wrote itis already visible. Tt was generated by the sense, Intentiat first and later conscious, that his life was for a purpose with which nothing must interfere, and that ofall interferences the most absorbing and the most difficult to keep in place is the love of a woman. ‘As a student he seems to have had a mass of girl friends, invariably chaperoned of course. As a man there is more than enough evidence that he was attractive to wornen, and he felt BYOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT at ease in their company. Particularly in his travel notebo fone observes time and again what a quick eye he had for a pre woman, and when he wished to do so he knew how to make presence felt. But apart from two or three exceptions, ‘willbe dealt with in their place, in general his relations with: ‘women to whom he felt attracted—and there were many. to emotional situations such as he experienced with Seg Catigbac, whom he described as ‘always a conqueror of heart that sill refused to surrender’. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS jpterests, now led him to the systematic budgeting of his time tshich from henceforth became the determinant of his daily fabits. With absolute self-discipline, and in a manner which never once, $0 far as is known, provoked complaint in any who {new him, he divided his time with a view to using each minute of it to the full, Each week he allowed s0 much time for the study of each of his subjects, so much time for exeative work— poetry, sculpting and sketching—so much time for the literary and other associations he belonged to, s0 much time for sleeping and cating, physical exercise and social relaxation, and above all, so much time for reading, thinking (often accompanied by doing something manual), and correspondence, For a student who was taking medicine more as a duty than because he felt he had any real aptitude for it, and who further- more disliked much of what he saw of the way the University sas run, this self-imposed discipline was probably needed, His sears of medical study in Manila were a struggle, and he only dig. moderately well, his distinetions being achieved in philo- ‘ophy and letters, where his real interests lay But through this time of discipline and struggle the man was emerging, and so too were his ideas. From things he saw every day in his classes he came to perceive that not all the fault lay ‘in the side of the friars. Much of it lay with the Filipinos. That the mass of the population should be inert and depressed, M’ accepting injustice without criticism because it knew of no other way of life, he could accept as inevitable in the insulated conditions of Spanish rule. But when a student in class stood up to protest when a friar teacher marked him down as five times absent at roll-call when he had only been absent once (and more than fifteen absences meant dismissal), while the test of the students, instead of substantiating the student's defence, sat silent and then laughed at the teacher's quips ‘contemptuously delivered in market-place slang, José felt otherwise. The attitude of the students depressed him as much %® the behaviour of the friar. If the indios were to stand up 10 pression, the impetus to them to do so could only come from On his return to Calemba on this same occasion, when’ stood before his mother awaiting her joyful welcome, he shocked when she stared at him for quite a time without 3 of recognition, She was going blind. How much this was d to the privations she had endured in prisonrcan only be su but it seems not unlikely that the development of cataract, which she was suffering, may in some measure be attrib to this ‘A crucial moment in family life often precipitates decision, one that has perhaps lain somewhere beneath d surface, unable to find expression. The following year, his com at Santo Toms, he chose medicine as his subject. He was not specially interested in medicine. While he inten ed to study the subject as thoroughly as he could, his interest was fit with the arriere pensée of its political ‘The fact that medicine would give him a money-earning car does not seem to have come into the matter, though later he ‘often extremely glad of the money he could earn as a doct The explanation he gave for his decision was that of the th professions which were all that were then open to Filipino Priesthood, medicine, and_law—this was the one in which felt he could be of most service to the people. But undoubtes an additional motive was that by becoming a doctor he eventually be able to do something for his mother’s sight. ‘The sense of purposelessness which marked his first year the University had gone. ‘The very versatility of his talent, wide scope of his studies in addition to medicine he was philosophy and literature,—and the even wider scope of J Dilan description of what a lass at Santo Tomés was like appeare ‘9 £1 Filthsteiome, Cop. XII, dearly autobiographical 4 45YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT the educated youth ofthe country, of which the students of Sq ‘Tomés were supposedly the cream. Yet there they sat day. day docilely tocing the line, each one only anxious to Keep oq of trouble, thus confirming the friars in their belief that indios were a supine race of whom nothing much was to expected, : Ina poem, A la Juventud Filipina, which won first prize| public competition organized by the Licco Artistico-Li of Manila in 1879, he urged upon educated Filipino youth t importance to their country, enunciating for the fi unambiguously his concept of the Philippines as a mi distinct from Spain, at the same time making two grad references to Spain as the source of the country’s well-be Tt was sailing perilously close to the wind, and reached @ ‘wider audience than any of his former verscs, most of which not gone much beyond his family and classmates, Pre the poem he set a quotation from a Spanish poet which, add ed as it was to youth, was both the encouragement and admonition he fet it needed—‘Grow, O timid ower!” And theme that was to run powerfully through his life's work appeared. The following year he won a more important literary given by the Liceo in commemoration of the cente Cervantes. Unlike most such contests, in which there separate entry for native writers, this was an open competi and for the prize to go to a Filipino, surpassing Peni Spaniards in the use of their own I was utterly unheard-of. He later recalled in a whimsical manne at the prize-giving, when his name was announced, the en Slastic applause dwindled away when the audience saw But he was entering the dangerous ground of prominen ‘Meanwhile somewhere in the shadows about him stood brother Paciano. While José had been distinguishing hi 1 'To Philippine Youth 46 sergraduate, 1879 In Masi, 1883 4 Portraits of Rizal, between 4872 and 1883In e882, ae sae was when Ril eh A few sears ates, wh UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS te Ateneo, Paciano's thoughts had been maturing, acquiring a more defined direction. His mother’s oncoming blindness and the visible ageing of both his parents had made Paciano deeply conscious of his duty to support them in their dectining years. The urge to do something for the country was still s powerful force in him, but beside it now stood the conviction that as there were only two sons in the family, one of them must, while their parents lived, always remain at hand. Which of the brothers this should be, the past few years had shown clearly to Paciano. While José had heen going from strength to strength, Paciano, ten years older, had been striving year after year to reach the final class at the College of San José and take his baccalaureate. It was not that he was a backward student, far from it. He might not express himself in Spanish so well as his brother, but his standard was certainly no worse than that of the others who each year successfully completed the course. As became apparent with time, the Dominican friars sho ran San José and who knew of Paciano’s former association ‘sith Burgos, were determined thatthe elder Rizal son should not attain the baccalaureate enabling him to make a career for him- self in Manila, Without a college degree there would be no venue open to him but to return to the comparative nonentity of the Calamba sugar plantations, which was where the friars ‘wished to see him. After keeping him in the same class for several years, they failed him. ‘One of the remarkable features about Paciano was that he ‘aw without bitterness towards his younger brother what this meant. It must be Ps 10 who remained behind, and José who \ent out into the greater world beyond Calamba. Furthermore, if Paciano was to do as he undeterringly wished, and be actively ‘sociated with a movement of reform, the way in which he could do it lay in encouraging José to take on the mantle of Burgos, which Paciano had perhaps atone time envisualized for himself, giving every possible aid to the younger brother whom, ‘gain without the least streak of bitterness, Paciano recognized 8 being of the two of them the one better fitted for the task. How rauch the formation of Jose's politica ideas was dus to ‘ciano will never be known. The brothers were extremely. 7YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT lose to each other in sympathy; they had identical atti and convictions. When José was a small boy Paciano had bbeen entrusted with responsibility for him. It was Paciano first took him to school, Paciano who accompanied him he went up to the Ateneo, Paciano who always found him ings. Atevery decisive step José took in these early years, Paci ‘was there somewhere, Between them there was something ‘went beyond brotherhood and friendship—an intuitive un standing which, with their reserved natures, it needed few to express, and which, when they were apart, sustained in the certainty that the other had not changed his views, All can be definitely ssid about José’s steadily forming poli ideas is that Paciano was in complete agreement with them. some of these ideas stemmed from Paciano’s thinking ca be discounted, neither can the possibility that when José small boy Paciano, encouraged by Burgos, had env attempting to do what his younger brother eventually did. Somme time during this period (the most probable date is 1 the year José took up medicine) the two brothers made ver a solemn bond. The exact details of it will never be known, it was in the sense of Paciano’s resolve for his younger brot future, and of José’s own self-knowledge, already maturing: becoming distinct, of what he must do. To José would fall duty of taking up the Filipino cause, while to Paciano would the duty of looking after their parents, at the same time gi ‘José all the support he could. One curious feature of the ‘was an understanding that only one of them should presumably so that however things turned out there always be one of them who, unencumbered by personal f ties, could devote himself entirely to the well-being of parents, ‘This last they revealed in confidence to their ‘Narcisa, the only member of the family to be admitted in ‘measure to this secret. ‘The complete silence which otherwise surrounds the bot is referred to nowhere in the brothers’ correspondence any other contemporary source—suggests that they consi it sacred, and of so binding a nature that it need never, perhaps should never, be referred to again. Once sworn, it, 8 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS {or life. From this time forth their lives were dedicated in two different ways to the same cause, and to a sworn unity.’ ‘There is something melodramatic and at first sight faintly sbsurd about this moment, It smacks of the age of chivalry several centuries too late, of Arthurian legend, or of Wagner's sill unwritten operas. But itis very Spanish, absolutely Spanish Philippine, and not a little Oriental. In the Far East a word spoken in solema cireumstances is a sound audible to the car of beaven, and thus final. The Spanish Philippines were founded when the age of chivalry, dead elsewhere, still lived in Spain; and chevaleresque ideas had entered the Philippines and become part ofits tradition, In Spain solemn oaths and secret compacts bad played a vigorous part in history, and far from being con- sidered absurd, were respected for the dangers they posed. ‘Moreover in the Spanish Philippines, due to the omnipresent intelligence system of the friars, there was for reformers. no slternative to proceeding in absolute secrecy, the personal situa- tions thus created lending themselves completely to the manners cf bygone ages. The revolt of the Philippines against Spain is from end to end a tale of secret societies, of hands clasped, and signatures written, in blood. ‘There was ao other known way. And to Spaniards it was a way which was disquietingly familiar The secret compact between Paciano and José Rizal may not unreasonably be described as the starting-point of changes that ‘were to affect directly their own country, and indirectly the frcater part of a continent. Neither of them realized, at that ‘The source for thi is Narcsa Riza-Léper, the only person who knese fs, verbally to hee grand-dnvghter Asanelsn, supra, ere dead. For maay years, out of loyalty ta hee othe ‘cre, only revealing Ie when she was a7 old Indy, ad iv privately lichng that i view of te portance tad held for her brothers, should "t he allowed to pam out of nomletge. The anésdote she alo recounted iy ‘onneaion with i (eee Put II, Cap. 3) is only explicable interme of 3 bond sf gn extremly serous nature’ The jancr content of Rize le a this tne indirectly substantiates Natesasevidencs, n particular the sense of objective ‘2: determination which came over him fom mdcrB78, the nist probable ‘ttc of the bond. Wealso makes sense im the contest of Paiano's lergr th ie Nrotier quoted in Part Il, Cap. 2 the phases which Paciano underlind {slcized) being almost certainly an oblique reference tot. Itsbould be added {Ree ofall Rizal's soters Nereen was the closest to hina in ssonpathy snd racer in particular sharing his respect for truth and accuracy. She wat so the Sater who most closely undeftotd is politcal life 9‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT ‘moment, this later aspect, nor even contemplatedit, Thea they envisaged were national, and these would be hard to achieve. It is strange, though, to reflect that it was in| Lope de Vega atmosphere that was born one of the sti which propelled events in Asia forward to the day in 1931 Gandhi in his loincloth walked to meet George V at Buch Palace. 50 w Departure on a Mission Leonor Rivera—the Devil's speech in Junto al Pasig-—seeret depar- re—objectives—farewlls Tue BOND between the brothers does not seem to have been explicit concerning which of them should marry and which wuld not, Once launched on his political life, José in general hesitated to marry, believing it would be an interference, thus by inference leaving it to Paciano to marry if he wished. Paciano on the other hand seems to have considered that it was José who should marry Some time during José’s years as a medical student, possibly in the early part of 1880, Pacisno, with the same sense of responsibility for his brother which is noticeable in all he did for him, took him—with marriage in mind, family sourcesaver— to the house of an uncle of theirs, Antonio Rivera, who lived in Intramuros, and who had a charming daughter, their cousin, ‘who in April 1880 had her thirteenth birthday.! Paciano’s action here scems at first sight curious. José had confided to him in secret his desire, on completing his medical studies, togo to Europe; and Paciano, evidently inthe bond, had ‘undertaken to finance the visit, which was to be made in the interests of Philippine reform, If José was to travel abroad it ‘would surely be more sensible, one would say, for him to do s0 a5 a bachelor. Since under their agreement only one of them might marry, Paciano, with his roots at home, should more reasonably be the one for this, + By a strongly surviving pre-Christian custom a prospective son-in-law vas given a hard time ofan the Philppines. In oral areas he right have to ‘Non for several years as his future fatbercn-lw's labour before he could Jit bie bride: In upper-case Manila sciety parents exercised their conte Tatly by delying tacticn; it often took years to persuade parents to agree ‘Sian cngagemnent and sil move years before they consented tothe marrige, Te thus Befoved & youne men to sake his clio cacy 3HYOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT But Paciano, who was an exceptionally serious-minded p son, seems to have considered that he bore responsibilities Philippine reform devolving on him from Burgos. The many was to pass to his younger brother, but for the present he the intetim pilot, the man responsible for keeping the cause; reform alive, in however concealed a manner. And Pacis despite the intimacy of his understanding of his brother, sill not certain of him, To Paciano, the mote sober of the José, with his multifarious activities, his artistic pursuits his social life, appeared to be a person easily swayed. Whi he went to Europe and forgot all about the object of his 1 He might not even return. If he was married, however, or even engaged before he hhe would feel moreanchored tothe Philippines, more responsib and more likely to stick to his purposes. This scems to be ‘explanation of the visit to the Rivera home in Intramuros, As it happened, it was an encounter which proved to be more important than even Paciano had foreseen, In a si ‘evening José met, in Antonio Rivera, the man who was to pl 4 key réle in advising and assisting him to go abroad, and, ‘Antonio's daughter Leonor, the heroine, the inspiration, ideal—it was the age of very romantic literature—from he created Maria Clara, the heroine of Noli Me Tangere, who was undoubtedly the only woman in his life whom loved truly and in his own way, ‘that is to say, very diff from other loves that I have heard mentioned’. ‘When this has been said, however, the rest is shadowed uncertainty, the confounding fact being that in this, the m highly-documented Asian life of the nineteenth century, th is one glaring lacuna. Practically nothing is known concern the love of José Rizal and Leonor Rivera, the great abiding in both their lives, and one of the strangest and saddest. eason for this lacuna isl too simple. In the end each dest the other's letters, leaving scarcely a clue to the nature of attachment, in that apart from the few months lying b their first meeting and José’s departure for Europe it was Ia entirely by correspondence. That it was, or at any rate becat 4 love vital and intense, the most profound attachment of 5a DEPARTURE ON A MISSION kind in his life, is evidenced by his reactions at certain later oments that were witnessed by others, and which will be {described in their proper place. What the two of them wrote to tach other, and what exactly took place between them, is unknown, ‘When he first met her, Leonor was thirteen; when he left for Europe she was fifteen. They corresponded for another six years, but never saw each other again. Photographs show that {She was exceedingly pretty, with a high forehead, soft wavy hair, almond eyes, a rather small, pensive mouth, and engaging dim- ples. She played the piano and had a charming singing voice, ind though by no means an intellectual, it would seem that swhen they first met she was like José himself, mentally mature for her years. It would certainly appear to be of his own first meeting with Leonor that he was thinking when in his novel he Gescribed Ibarra's meeting with Maria Clara:t 2 such moments, when the thoughts of two happy’ beings penetrate Into each other tule trough the eves the spoken wore i baling, rude, and weak». , expressing felings already recognized, ideas Already understood It is known that during these two years in Manila they con- ducted an active correspondence. Their letters were mainly in code, the readiest explanation for this being that Le smother, even at this early date, does not secm to have liked José, and that on his side he sought to avoid with Leonor the buzz of chatter and the teasing of his sisters which had surrounded him when he was calling on Segunda At the same time it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that at this stage Leonor loved him with a far more exclusive devotion than he loved her. He had many friends, and his nature was loving and responsive. Such people seldom respond exchisively to the devotion they may inspire and even reciprocate, In addi- tion (see p. §5 below) he was going through a particular phase of indecisiveness. All in all it would seem that, while he was sreatly attracted to Leonor, throughout these months she was jn actuality the foremost among several, and that it was only in 2 Trans, Charles Derbyehize 33YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT the months immediately following his departure (when t ‘were never to meet again) that something unknown, sor in the correspondence, caused the bond between them to d and intensify. It would be idle to suppose that this could I arisen simply from the fact thatof all the girls he knew in she was the only one who continued to write to him. There clearly something more, a quality in her letters which convin hhim that she incarnated the ideal he instinctively soug seems to have been like a touchstone, and its magic took eff very shortly after his departure, from which moment Leo Rivera comes to hold the place which in retrospect she m always hold, as the woman in bis life. Some time in the months that followed, their correspo led them to what may be termed an engagement. In the w of another age, which most closely fit it, they plighted troth, thereafter holding themselves bound one to another these written pledges, On the photograph Leonor sent him wl she was nearing sixteen and he had gone, she wrote, ‘To from his faithful cousin.’ Beneath it, concealed in code, she p the real dedication: “To my unforgettable and dearest lo this picture is dedicated by his devoted Leonor.’ There ‘come to exist between him and Leonor Rivera a relat which had a quality about it closely resembling that which, different sphere of his life, existed between himself and brother Paciano, an understanding founded in the depth intuition. ‘The exact circumstances that led to his departure from Philippines are to some extent a matter of surmise due to secrecy in which, for various reasons, it was thought neces to enfold it The prerequisite to reform lay in the people acquis Lnovledge; nd thi, forthe author ofthe ie, resne he foremost himself. Paciano had secretly agrced to finance he would go ostensibly for further studies. The need for ppinos to study abroad had been strongly advocated by Burg and Paciano was at one with José in believing that to go abro ‘was the essential first step before anything could be achi 54 DEPARTURE ON A n1ISsION {or reform. But this sai, things eame toa standstill, the problem peing José himself. ‘le knew the importance of going to Europe; he knew he must go. But with a few years of university life before him, with his {tense love of country and devotion to his family, he was J) soconsciously putting the thought of departure into the back of is mind ‘ha his student memoirs show (written at exactly this tine, between the age of 17 and 20), despite his extreme application to his activities, he was going through a phase which often comes ver young men who have been child prodigies. After a child- hood of unusual maturity he was in his late ‘teens experiencing 1a delayed-action immaturity. In his memoir he attitudinizes, secing himself as a tragic figure, his life full of woe. Someone close to him, almost certainly his uncle Antonio Rivera, sug- gested it was time he pulled himself out of it and became a man. In private discussion the proposal seems to have come up that he should not wait to complete his course at Santo Tomas, but leave for Europe at once. His leadership of the University students was less evident than at the Ateneo, a more enclosed community; as an under- graduate he was able to spend more time in Manila society, Nonetheless his influence at the University was not without significance. He had gathered around him a group of the steadier and more serious-minded students, forming them into a secret society for mutual protection (against the Spanish stidents, who ‘were prone to persecuting the rest) and for the encouragement tf traditional Filgino sports. Lite or nothing COUR! De sid, ‘ven in this closed circle, of his political ideas; his aim, then as later, was to develop courage and integrity of character in the south of his eountry. TTo undergraduates he scemed far more mature than he docs Pin his memoir. In this there is no hint of the magnetism of his Personality which people felt when they were with him. His, Conversation was already like no one else's. As faultless as his ‘ress and comportment, there was never a wasted word in it. By some of the lesser lights he was described as humourless. He was seldom humorous for humour's sake, and his humour 35‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT ever hurt anyone. ‘The appeal of his conversation lay in sincerity, i a consummate use of imagery, in an ability to hhis ideas in exactly the way to make them memorable to person he was talking to, and, in the right company, to gui conversation along till, with each person participating, it ew into a veritable work of art. When conversation seem appropriate he would disarm everyone by taking out a chief and doing highly ingenious sleight-of-hand tricks, whatever mood, serious or light-hearted, he was invari interesting. ‘The year after he left the Philippines a young Spanish Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, recorded in her diary as much could remember of a day Rizal spent at her parents’ hou ‘Madrid, an account which captures the almost magical brili of the young Filipino's mind at this time. At the end she wa “In short, yesterday was one of those days that will be re bered for ever.” He was beginning to feel his feet. He already knew that ideas were of a nature that was compelling to the Filipino but that due to friar censorship he would never be at ‘express them, He could not for ever continue speaking in cryptic ambiguities of his student verse. His words would make sufficient impact, while even in the little they said he ‘running increasingly towards danger. Tn a one-act verse comedy, Junto al Pasig," which had performed at the Ateneo in December 1880, he had had, temerity to speak of the Philippines’ erstwhile ‘withering away beneath the alien hand of Spain—but brilliant device putting the words into the mouth of the who is trying to lure good little students away from the ‘occupation of taking offerings to Our Lady of Antipolo. Né theless, whether in the mouth of the Devil or not, José had ‘the first known time it had ever been said in public. In relatively liberal atmosphere of the Ateneo it had been all to pass. Tt would not have found such tolerance among, Dominicans; and if he continued thus, as he knew he 1 ' * Reside the Pasig 56 DEPARTURE ON A MISSION he time could not be far off when the friars would take measures x silence him. Tt would then be too late to talk of going to Europe. The authorities would never let him leave. ‘To go to Europe had been his own idea, held for a consider- sble time. The question was simply when to go. Antonio Rivera rid his friends now gave him the little push which is sometimes ceeded in life to set people off on their pre-determined courses. About the turn of the year 1881-2 he told his brother he sould like to leave as soon as he could; he would finish is medical training in Madrid. Antonio Rivera and one or B¥0 ther close friends supported the idea, Paciano, who though onvinced af its wisdom would have preferred to have ecen the icparture delayed, agreed José still did not entirely want to go. Before him now, always « any critical juncture, stood that ‘cruel presentiment’ of his ast night at the Ateneo, Ahead of him lay some incomprehen- sible disaster, personal to him as it seemed, the outcome possibly of some mistake of his own doing. What he apprehended filled im with fears he wanted to avoid it. Yet being unable to perceive sts nature, he did not know how to avoid it. Before any major step, such as the one now confronting him, he thus hesitated, wondering if this step was perhaps the fatal mistake which ‘would lead him to the fulfilment of that presentiment. It would in this case be wiser not to go to Europe, He wanted his home: ‘The house, Calamba's cultivated fields, her Making, all her simple snd peraresque beat, sequied in meses a such moments 98 irestmable waive, ‘The adventure of going to Europe, alone and for great pur- poses, deterred him quite as much as it fired his imagination. Only duty—duty as he and Paciano understood it,—and a sense of bearing responsibility, of which he did not then know the ‘magnitude, determined his decision to leave. Here the foremost problem was the family. When he had left the Ateneo, it was his father who had decided to send him to ee ee ee eee 87YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT. the University. But when his mother had beseeched her hus to change his mind, the father had stood silent. Only Pacis determination had brought José to Santo ‘Tomas. Both brothers knew without need for words that their n ‘would never agree to José going abroad. She was that kin ‘mother. She would never let a child go too far. Even as daughters one by one married she never allowed this to & the family's unity imperceptibly the sons-in-lw were soda into the affairs of the Rizal family that they became part IE Teodora knew that er aon was planing to goto Europe ould sake such a family commotion in Calambs, Bian fanila as to render it impossible for him to leave; and if h not leave now it might soon be too late. As the brothers their uncle Antonio sav it, there was no alternative to pro ing in secret. . Without a word being said t ‘0 anyone in either the Riz the Rivera family, preparations went quietly ahead for departure. Friends took the necessary measures, always diffe and uncertain under Spanish rule, to obtain a passport for Pacino, who now ad land-hodings and an teams of hi Provided the money for a first-class passage to Europe, lundertook to send his brother a monthly allowance. Earl 1882 José, then aged twenty, completed his fourth year medical student and returned as usual to Calamba. Before lay the fifth year he was not going to take. 'No one in the family noticed anything untoward, ‘more drawn to his country than ever before, and incre ashamed of the deception he was playing on his parent, w he knew he might not see again for many years, when the day came, and, on the pretext of going up to Manila, P accompanied him to take leave of their parents, he newly down, In the reserved, formal way ofthe family he hissed ‘hands and went quickly from the room, striving to suppress f emotion. Had he been more certain of what he was goi Europe the parting migh hima depres hy might have been for him a degree nfl his return might then ave had at leas a shadomy at he did not know what he was going to do. When he 8 DEPARTURE ON A MISSION wpe it would be given out that he had left to continue his Suudies in Madrid; but as he and Paciano both knew, this was fot his real purpose. ‘What, in detail, this real purpose was is screened by the fact that though he clearly discussed his ideas fully with Paciano, {either of them left any written record of these discussions; nor, it vould seem, did either of them disclose their exact nature to anyone else. What José seems to have aimed at doing (but this je conjecture) was to learn in the widest possible sense about fther nations, how they were governed, what laws they had, nd which governments were better than others, how inter~ tational commerce worked, what reform movements there were in Europe, how much freedom they were allowed, and what mouthpieces they used. In Spain moreover there must be men of standing who were disposed to help the Philippines, perhaps ‘ven sponsor the Filipino cause. Such men he must seek to contact. And when he had learnt enough, and won for himself a position in which he could do s9, he must himself do something for his country. What and how remained to be decided by circumstances. (On 3 May 1882 he sailed from Manila on this lonely mission. Te-was by any standards an extraordinary undertaking, and he ‘was still in some ways no more than just an affectionate, tender- hearted boy. At parting he was inwardly rent with emotion at leaving his family and the friends who bad helped him, Jmploring those who saw him off to stay with him tll the very last moment; and as the ship moved out he stayed at the rail, staring after them stil ill the skyline of Manila, with the domes ‘and towers of its churches, was ‘only a forest of poles and formless shapes in the distance gilded by a most brilliant sun.” Tin his diary that evening he sighed wistfully as he recalled the feminine company in which asa student he had so delighted: Leonors, Dolores, Ursulas, Felipas, Vieentas, Margaritas, and others, ‘other loves will occupy your hearts and soon you will forget the traveller. P'l return, but I'l find myself isolated because those who formerly smiled on me will be reserving their charms for others more Incky. And in the meantime T fly after my vain idea, a fale illusion Dethaps. May I find my family intact and die then of happin 59‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT ‘To Leonor Rivera he left a little poem making the goo he had been unable to say personally, not even Leonor bei the secret of his departure. In verse he expressed his an that destiny had eo pointed the way that he use part from ‘To his parents he left a letter which was delivered to when he was safely at ea, After craving their pardon fr ea his departure secret from them, he spoke to them in the reli strain which he sems to have felt they would be most spleen so which would be of most comfort to th revealing ashe i so that it was to some exten thus tha saw what he was setting out to da: mang But ss God has not made anthing usees in thi fa obigtns os le inthe eabline dra of Cra cannot exempt mysel froma this duty and small though fy ive mision to fila for ample alleviating te eofecngs Of felon, rie hari tht means scien ord tele ‘magne the pain which T must give you, but Eel somethig obliges and impels me to leave. T shall stive with fate, and Ts win or lose God's will be done. iis ast It is a truism that men who achieve something notable: their lives are born atthe right time and right time and place. Had Rizal b bor fifty years earlir, hie task would have been even ha than it was, because his own ignorance, as well as that of people, would have been greater ‘There would, for cxa have been almost no connexion between Calamba and Maa since there was then no sugar trade, while before the introd ton of ste pene the Ikendsiver route to the capi journey to Manila was something few people achieved more th ‘once of twice in a lifetime, oe As i a he opening of fe por in al at which un restrictions more cumbersome tha in any other count Asia it was possible, with patience and by bribing officials, doa certain amount of trade, had brought the first glimmeri af the light of the modern world. Communications round Ma improved there was» macadamized road as far a5 Bi ringing the countryside more in touch with the capital, ‘making i easier for country families to send ther sons to colle 60 DEPARTURE ON A MISSION ‘prourh the foreign trade houses prohibited literature could ‘Risonally be slipped in, It was atime of very gradual awaken- ing “This for Rizal was an advantage. Other advantages were his exceptional parents, their library, and that as the brother of focano he Was more or less born in the direct line of succession ‘he Philippines’ embryonic reform movement, originating in the demand for Filipino clergy to be given more parishes. This fist nas at fist alatent advantage, because the subject could not fe mentioned; but once it was, between the brothers in secret, jx assumed significance. Nevertheless, comparing his background with that of the teltively liberal, free-speaking atmosphere in which Gandhi nd Tagore were brought up in British India, it can be seen fow far more complex were the hurdles he had to negotiate before reaching his point of departure. The British fag might ay on Indian public buildings, but no one pretended that India twos part of Britain, Furthermore in India contrary ideas could be uttered to family and friends with impunity, published if necessary. In the Philippines this was not so, No contraty thought could be uttered, even to a close relative. When he conceived his idea of the Philippines not being part of Spain, he could not divulge it even to his mother, for fear of arousing alarm. Such was the dread inspired by new ideas, due to the danger in which they placed those who expressed them. Every fone of his early ideas bad to be evolved in silence, hhis only aids being books and his own observation, until somehow—in circumstances that are notknown—he broke the ice with Paciano, and in absolute secrecy they began to discuss their beliefs. Hiad he been in Europe when he arrived at his fundamental conclusions, these, even conceived atthe age of fifteen, would in retrospect seem less remarkable. ‘That in the mentally asphiysi- ating conditions of the Philippine frailocracy he was able to reach his basic conclusions with such accuracy that they needed nu subsequent modification in the light of new experience— because they were right—is very remarkable indeed. He set out for Europe with his political foundations laid. It remained to build on them. 6ata Journey into Light 1882-7 ‘My only desire isto do what is possible, what lies within my grasp, ‘what ia most necessary. T have glimpsed a lite light, and I believe T should show it to my countrymen. Rizal to Pablo Pastells Dapitan, 11 November 1892I The Impact of the West Spanish colonial conversations—entry into the modern scorld—short money in Barcelona—Paciano’s frst letter MasiLa, with its priestly rule and censorship, its foreign restrictions and atmosphere of spying, was not on any of the ‘main sea routes of the East, for the not unsurprising reason that, in addition to its attracting only a fraction of Far Eastern commerce, no one unless compelled wished to go there. In order to connect with a main sea route it was necessary to take cither the P. & O. weekly packet-steamer to Hongkong, or one of the third-rate Eastern-run steamers which were the only other vessels that called at any Philippine port. The Salvadora, the Spanish vessel in which he travelled to Singapore, was in a sense an aquatic extension of the Spanish Philippines, as out-of-date in its standards, and as pronouncedly ‘colonial in its social atmosphere, OF his Spanish fellow-passengers he noted: ‘The men, almost all of them, speak ill of the countey to which they sp for pecuniary motives... . [Those] who made their fortune there, who have spent years and years there . .. free and vokantarily 1 =. and who are now retiring with feelings more evi than good, are ‘iuch in evidence. I do not know how they have had suck relish for evil a to suller such a martyrdom. The truth is that they are extract- ing gold, nd I think that for this they would be capable of anything, ‘The women go much further than the men. ‘The [men] defamers ate lyric poets by comparison with them. If they were to be believed, Spain would be « genius in virtue, talent and wisdom compared with others, and in the Philippines one would find not even one useful Atom, because God there lost his providential wisdom, Even about other countries they carry on in the same fashion. Nevertheless there were, as always, the others; and one ‘evening he was able to listen in on an all-male group of them conversing, 65JOURNEY INTO LIGHT They talked much about the government in the Philippines. cism owed like anything. I have come to find out that all [Spa in my poor country, whether friar or functionary, live consumed. desize to suck the blood of the indio. There might be excep they said, but they are very rare Teis from this that spring great and enmities between those who quarrel over the same loot, ‘The primness so characteristic of independence move ‘ean be sensed here, in particular the suggestion that, independence, no formerly subject people would be so a3 to wish to make money for themselves. This passed a few days, to be replaced by a truer insight. In fact, the writ of Rizal are remarkable for their complete lack ofthe natiox jingoism which was in due course to be hurled across the tops of Asia. ‘As the only ndio passenger he was inevitably conspi but from the kindly way in which he was treated by a nu of the Spaniards itis evident that there was something more! this. He was conspicuous in his own right. Slight—he five-footfive in his shoes—slender and good-looking, his high, broad forehead, his eyes alive with perception intelligence, his strong jaw, and his fair colouring, there even at that age an arresting quality about him, whic dignity, quietness, and perfect manners enhanced, and brightened in his humour and quick response to others. Impeceably dressed in a suit made for him by his Maria, he was a person who drew the attention of even the hhard-bitten colonial. The colonial might not like what he. for Rizal was himself unconsciously a silent statement of ‘equality; but there was about him some indefinable infh 4 personal magnetism, which could not be ignored. As Spaniards who spoke to him quickly discovered, he an indio, but he expressed himself like a European, 1 affectation and without being in any way disconcerting European colonial, which at that date was 4 rare occurres In effect, however, he was still on his own soil. The Sa bore with her the society of the Philippines, the malaise indio, In this sense his voyage abroad only really started w! Singapore he reached his main sea route and transferred to 66 ‘THE IMPACT OF THE WesT rench liner Djemua, of the Messageries Maritimes. As he + yalked up the gangplank he entered for the first time the modern trorld ereated by the West, a world in which Spain participated only distantly, and the Philippines not at all He was very impressed. Jn a note he described the ship: . exceeding all exaggeration, and whatever descriptions T may spake of it will I believe, be pallid. Sulfce it to say that everything fhines with cleanliness: copper, iron, zine, and wood. The ship i large, very large... - The cabins are most beautiful, clean and well- Joted. Each lisa light, curtains, basins, mirror, ete. The floor large saloons; toilets very clean, i covered with rugs; there 2 bathrooms excellent ‘The service is unsurpassable. All the stewards are attentive, cour- teous and smart... Very early in the morning the gargon cleans ail the shoes, and he fs always at our service. In each berth the bed. bas springs, and is very cool. The cleaning is carefully done, and cverywhere one sees the most perfect neatness. It is a description fascinating in its revelation of the things which, for all bis education, he did not know, and was now, and with great rapidity, going to learn. In the cosmopolitan erowd aboard (English, French, Dutch, Spaniards, Malays, and Siamese, many of the Europeans with, their families) he had without noticing it ceased to be an india, the word having ao connotation in this broader environment. He quickly made shipboard friends among the Europeans, mainly Dutch friends with whom he conversed in his schoolboy French, which be took pains to improve. He was got_much impressed by the Siamese, who had a tendency to sit in giggling huuddles; but he did discover from one of them that they were Buddhists and not Catholics, another revealing lacuna in the Knowledge with which he set out. The Church in the Philippines «did not presumably care for it to be known how little of the rest of Asia was Christian, At every port of eall he went ashore on excursions with his Dutch friends, who can be seen to have treated him as one of themselves in a way Spaniards would have found it hard to do; and everywhere he found a great deal to admire. He discovered *2o, though not fully till the voyage was nearing its end, howJOURNEY INTO LIGHT. much the life of a passenger ship appealed to him, He li continual comings and goings, and the variety of person aboard a big ship. When he landed at Marseille on 13 Junei with a sense of sadness at saying goodbye to the ship an shipboard friends. Faced once more with himself and) problems, he knew how alone he was. ‘Two days later, together with his last two companions of voyage (two of the more friendly Spaniards who had been hhim all the way from Manila) he left by night train for Sp ‘The train was another new experience; he was much impres by its immense speed, specially when two trains passed ‘other—'like bolts of lightning’, as he noted. Entering Spain—and one observes in this the rapidity which he was assimilating things in the new world that been opened to him—he experienced that vague sense of letd which many Europeans similarly feel. He noticed immed hhow few public works were to be seen compared with Fi And he felt the changed atmosphere. He noted: Upon entering Spanish territory one cannot fil to perceive the in'the ai, the landscape, and even in poopl’s behaviour His immediate destination was Barcelona, whither he bro leters of introduction from the Jesuits of Manila to their leagues, and from various Filipino friends to their student rd tives, His arrival in Barcelona however was marred by that ‘of problems for a stranger in a new country or continent. ‘need to find cheap lodgings. In the company of his E friends on the journey, and due also to his natural inclina which were those of a young man accustomed to the had run himself short of money. Added to this he found scholastic year in Europe differed from that of the Philippi and that before he could enter the Universidad Cent Madrid, which he was aiming for, he had three months bel ‘him with nothing to do, Shifting from one dingy boarding house to another, them situated in squalid backstreets, he tried with incre hopelessness to find the impossible—something better ccheaper—as the days narrowed to the point when he would b 68 ‘THE IMPACT OF THE WEST Jing to cat. It was a grim introduction to Spain, and his sothiO§ ew on Barcelona and the indifference and uncouthness ints people reflected this. Moreover, when with dificulty he aged to locate the addresses of the Filipinos he hoped to saa he Was told they were tl sleeping, at an hour when others ee about-—a discovery which, with ite overtones of a dissolute Tat purposeless life, deepened his depression. “The Jesuits however helped him, even lending him money, and. he apent much of is time in thei ibrary. When he finally Mntected the Filipino students they too helped, finding him a Sarding house on narrow Calle Sitjes where, though the frelity differed lite, at least there was a kindly hostess and student boarders who were more polite than some of the other oniards he had encountered. Seifer about a month came the eagerty-awaited fet leter from Paciano, telling how their parents had received the news of his departure, how ther father had taken to his bed uricon- toluble, and how at lat Paciano, fearing thatthe old man might take bimeelfseriousy ill, had felt obliged to tell him that it was he who had financed the journey, since when their father’s state had slowly begun to improve. . “The lettee a of special interest in being one which shows with panticular clarity the nature and extent of Paciano's influence fn his brother. Veiling his meaning, and referring to a rumour Which had somehow begun to circulate in Manila before José had even reached Europe, Paciano thought it advisable to remind his brother of his real purposes: ts bei ze that you will complete your course in medicine 1 BeeiS ind notin Medd to my 0 thinking the prinepal bject of your going is not to perfect yourself inthis career, but in ther matters of greater wsefubnets Of which comes to the sumthing, {i tht totektoh fou are matt inclined Ths 1 fel you should continue Nour course in Maid, conte ofall the provinec, because whileitis roe tat Barcelona there i more iy more modk and arention ro teaching you have not gone thereto partcipate in such If, oil lene {o wonky dnd as for good instruction, in the case of there Being none in Madd” the remy lee inthe way the student applies hunself, 2s wl be in your interest to be therewith our countrymen, who ‘wil beable to advice you, because otherwise you will not be in tuch 69 initialJOURNEY INTO LIGHT with things. I don't know if this suits you, as for me, I'd be happy if it were so; io any event do not fargt to reply on this py because I'am much committed to it ‘The whole ofthe relationship betveen the brothers is in these lines, the respect of the older for the younger w! knew was more gifted, yet the authority of an elder brother his junior; above all, « complete unity of aim. "a But Paciano need not have worried. José had no intent of being deflected from his course. In September, after ‘months of acclimatization in Barcelona, he travelled across Madrid, enrolled atthe Universidad Central, and launched the two most significantly formative years of his life Il First Year in Madrid rie Filipino community in Spain—Résal’s example—brillant per- eae an "Tur slTcaTION in Madrid when he began his studies there was .couraging ftom the viewpoint of initiating Philippine reforms, ain, after decades of political turbulence and upheaval, was passing through a comparatively tranquil period under the restored Bourbon monarchy of Alfonso XIT and a constitution ‘which embodied many of the principles laid down by the revolu- tionary reformers of 1868. This constitution extended to Cuba and Puerto Rico, which with the Philippines were the last significant remnants of the once vast dominion of New Spain. Privileges granted in the constitution, which included the right to parliamentary representation in the Cortes, were thus enjoyed by Cuba and Puerto Rico, but not by the Philippines, which had to representation of any kind, laws passed by the Cortes being introduced into the Philippines at the Spanish Government's discretion, which meant at the discretion of the friars, who in all that concerned the Philippines exercised in Madrid an unseen bot powerful influence. ‘The exclusion of the Philippines from the constitution sxpressed a trait in Spain's way of thinking about the Spanish Ultramar which, formed by experience, had by this time become 4 habitual attitude. The men who had inspired and led the ‘evolutions which had brought Spain’s empire in the to Americas to an end had been mainly creoles, people of Spanish Stock. Spain was thus aware of the dangers of withholding Privileges from Cuba and Puerto Rico, with their creole popula- tions, In the Philippines, on the other hand, there was no creale Problem; the people there were indios, members of a backward "ace whe for more than three hundred years had shown by their aJOURNEY INTO LIGHT docility how grateful they were for the benefits of Ch civilization conferred on them by a superior race. That th the situation in the Philippines was genuinely beli thinking Spaniards, who had no idea that the Filipinos ‘was an outcome of an incredible form of government im by friars, or that the indiar were anything other than hhad been described since time immemorial, a race unf nature to hold a place of its own in the modern world, Rizal quickly saw that this attitude had to be se challenged before anyone in Madrid would be persuaded o need for Philippine reform. He also saw that the compat tranquillity of Spain had by no means stilled the political sions of Madrid, where every kind of extreme view was and freely aired, and where above all there was a great d anti-clerical feeling, Spain’s liberal and revolutionary mov having been aimed at removing shackles imposed as much the Church as by the State, the two having in Spain b unusually closely connected. Clearly, as he observed it should be possible, through the medium of the liberal republican press, to draw attention to the malpractices off religious corporations in the Philippines. Tt was a tale m readers would be all too pleased to hear. This, however, while useful, would not serve to alter basic Spanish concept of the indio as a member of a back race, a view which moreover was held by Spaniards w republican or royalist, liberal or conservative, For this the ‘answer was to demonstrate to Spaniards that their basic att ‘as simply not true, that Filipinos were fully a intelligent a competent to conduct affairs as anyone else, and that for reason, if for nothing else, they must be brought within framework of the constitution and treated differently, demonstration of this would only be effective if it was condu by Filipinos who lived among Spaniards, and whom Sp: ‘could see with their own eyes were very different from basic concept of an indio. ‘This meant the Filipino univer students; and the first and most obvious way they could b their point home to Spaniards was by excelling in their and in their personal conduct. FIRST YEAR IN MADRID His initial discovery of the Filipino students in Barcelona «allasleep in the middle of the morning proved to bean accurate foretaste of the larger community he found in Madrid. Indeed seeping till noon could have been called the distinguishing Gharacteristic of the Filipino students, who formed an obscure {Bierie on their own, their days (such parts of them as they were awake) spent in gambling or at the coffec-table, their nights srith women. Dandified and precious, the most serious conver- tation they could rise to concerned, in Rizal’s own words, ‘the number of buttons on a coat’ TThis state of affairs was not entirely surprising. TThe Filipino seudents had always been this way, so far as anyone knew; it amounted to a tradition. Just how many of them there wete in Madrid when Rizal arrived is uncertain; they appear to have numbered between thirty-five and forty, and as the decade proceeded their number enlarged. Against their number, how- exer, has to be set the extent of their potential influence in their homeland, many of them being sons of the wealthiest families, the leaders of Filipino society. Others (and of these Rizal was specially conscious) were from families in which the parents had made great sacrifices to send them to Spain, and were unaware that their sons were repaying their hopes by frittering away their time in dissipation. Asa whole the Filipino community made no impact whatever ‘on university life. Few of them even troubled to attend lectures, any student who took his studies seriously being soon dissuaded by apathy and ridicule; and in their disinclination to stand up for themselves in any argument with a Spaniard they set a seal of assent on their inferior status, in which unconsciously they themselves believed, justifying Rizal's description of Filipino youth as a timid flower. Somehow this community, every one ‘of whom was known to him in a few days, had to be made to stand up, to win distinctions, and be proud of doing so, Among them were two who stood apart from the rest in their seriousness of purpose and evident promise, These were the ‘to young artists Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccién Hidalgo, ‘with whom Rizal, himself taking art among his numerous subjects at the University, found he had much in common, and BJOURNEY of whose works he became an immediate and lifelong ad recognizing that here lay talent that could be signalled ‘example to the rest. For his own purposes, however, if he was to be li by his countrymen, the chief example must be hit with the purpose not only of learning, but of demonst others what a Filipino was eapable of, he embarked on gramme of activity which ean seldom’ have been surpas any university student at any time, As in Manila, so in he proceeded to take two courses simultaneously: niedicin philosophy and letters. In addition he was studying a fencing, inthe latter developing into an expert swords the course of the next three vears he proved himself one a University’s most outstanding students, on various occa achieving the coveted grade of sobreralinte in general lite Greek, history, Greck and Latin literature, Hebrew, adh Greek, and Spanish literature, while at the same titne p competently each of his medical examinations. It achievement such as no Filipino had ever made before, and are even among Europeans, The professor of Greek later that in his whole career he never had a student to excel At the root of this achievement lay his time-budget his conscious development of the faculty of memory, bo which were now called fully into play. In his spare t ‘spare’ is. a word which does not really apply to Rizal's besides reading widely on a mass of subjects not di connected with his studies, he read the newspapers assiduc and, as in everything he did, with a purpose. As the first in what came to be known as the Propaganda Movemen ‘made ita point to write to the editors of the liberal and republia Press whenever the news of the day produced a ju excuse for drawing attention to the real state of the reli corporations in the Philippines, as opposed to the chat missionary endeavour and sacrifice in which the friars som "TO LIGHT “ann an Hidalgo wee ants of eceptional mer, tic wok is own with the lending Furopean sealer arate of te i Patt Dancin Egepe eter eired ty ere ie e Rigal came to have a well-choven collection of the work 1 * FIRST YEAR IN MADRID clothe their actions, Such opportunities were few, the palippines being a remote subject which seldom came into the ves: but by making the most of friar self-praise as it appeared fer and there, it served as a beginning, Furthermore in Spain there was liberty it was not necessary for statements about the {pars to be veiled, Copies of newspapers in which his letters ‘ppeated, or which contained articles demonstrating the freedom ‘ath which anti-clerical views were broadcast in Spain, he sent tp Paciano, who read them and circulated them among friends. Je was the shoot appearing above the earth Coming to Spain clarified his political aims in a matter of ‘months, In the extreme intellectual contrast between the fear~ seated evasiveness of the Philippines and the boisterous self- ‘apression of Spain, where atheists and freethinkers freely spoke jnoffensiveterms of religionand theChurch, and republicans with qual freedom decried a royalist régime, he saw-beyond all further talow of daubt where lay the obstacle to Philippine reform. It was not Spain, Spain might lag behind France and England, but itwas nonetheless a great nation, and from the Philippines’ asso- «dation with it on equal terms could come nothing but good. Nor ‘vas it the Catholic Church, the Church of Christ, the Church ‘ofthe Jesuits, which was the obstacle. Rizal, a devout practising Catholic, had with his Hebrew, Greek and Latin far too deep a Inowledgeof Christianity and the Church tomistake the body for its members. The obstacle lay in the friars. It was what he had thought in the Philippines; it was what Paciano had said; it was ‘what Burgos had almost certainly said. Rizal had not been sure, As his little comedy Junto al Pasig shows, he had once thought the obstacle was Spain. Now in Spain he knew with final cer- tainty that it was the friars, and the friars only, and that it was 4 them he must aim his attacks, not at Spain, and not at religion, He thus had two interrelated aims, of which the first was the ‘nore important—to regenerate the Filipinos through their Siucated youth, and to expose the misdeeds and hypocrisy of the friars. Both were steps towards the longer aim of reform, of Which the first measure must be the attainment by the Philip- Pines of a status equal to that of Cuba and Puerto Rico, with the right to representation in the Cortes. BIIL The Toasting Speech Noli Me Tangere stared—the ats Lama and Hidalgo ho Rizal come ender of the Pipincs i Spas dood sadicine preeminent concern Leora death ‘Dente Hs first long vacation he went to Paris, where he about two months, between June and August 1883, impr his French (he told his family he would ike to tastes, seven languages before returning home) and scouring from end to end, guidebook in hand. Haussmann's imposing scheme for the replanning of had by this time been implemented, and the centre of looked much as it docs today. It was Riza’ fist eaperie a city so large as to be a world in itself, and he at first felt much a country cousin. The politeness of French peg particularly in Paris, he found striking after Spain. He realized his parents would have dificulty in apprecati normity of Paris. To the family he wrote long leer, ne long as the guidebook itself, describing everything he sa ‘Having been accustomed to a certain kind of treatment for # month, now hat Emin Pars fod mal and Toner ane ‘uncouth. Here a is a real ant; there are street tee eects lage In his frst year in Maded there had been in ex Cireulo Hispano-Filipino. Organized by the students, toge with some Spaniards formerly resident in the Piipgiees, Circulo had had a small magazine to wl 4 Most of them were Liberia. They inchaded Pedro Ortiga y of Manila during Dele Torre's governahipy snd lata Casseenede "ar holding the brie for the Phippines. Tite wae the nearest the ite fo ating a reoeseattre in Madrid the ppoinsnent ws 76 ‘THE TOASTING SPEECH Neither the Circulo nor the magazine lasted long. Ever~ jpstinely borrowing money from one another to recoup what | they had lost gambling, the students were a difficult group to ‘ase funds from, and as Rizal soon noticed, the most unwilling f subscribe were frequently those with the most. The Circulo ffered also from a besetting problem of which from this time he fecame conscious—misplaced individualism, which made each member of an organization feel secretly aggrieved if he was not ected president of it, each member thus stubbornly wishing fp go his own way, the whole disintegrating into discontented factions scheming against each other. This particular characteris- tic among his own people, the difficulty they had in combining forces in any endeavour, due to excessive individualism, pro- sided in fact a problem which was to dog him throughout his politcal years. Tt was a constant worry, and he never quite learned how to deal with it. But the idea of the Filipinos having their own mouthpiece, the potential of which he had observed in the short-lived magazine, had impressed him deeply. He had come to realize the tremendous possi offered by the press freedom of Europe, freedom such as he had never seen before. Could they but raise the funds they could print the whole truth about the Philippines, and not for Spain alone, What was printed in Europe could be sent to the Philippines, smuggled in if necessary, and could thus fulfil two purposes simultaneously: acquainting Spain of the facts, and showing to Filipinos the true picture of their own pitiable state, which without help, without the intellectual presentation of it to them, they would never understand, From his college days he had held the principlo— the prerequisite to reform was the people's acquisition of knowledge. Herein, and from Europe, lay the means of putting. this into effect. He did not favour another magazine. This would run the risk of being the Circulo all over again, What he had in mind was a book, more expensive to produce, but with the advantage that fands could be raised for it by a once-for-all contribution, and not by regular subscriptions, the students’ failure to pay being ‘one of the causes of the magazine's collapse. 7JOURNEY INTO LIGHT ‘The book, as he conceived it, should be a jointeffort, in. ‘each of the Filipinos living abroad who had something fy (and who were the only ones free to say it) would write Particular subject, the whole forming a volume which, give a complete picture of the problems of the Philip ‘examined in every leading aspect, a book which could by into the hands of a Spaniard, or a Filipina at home, wit words, ‘Here is the problem, and the entire problem.’ Among those whom he counted on approaching, in addi to the Madrid students, were the dayen of Filipinos aby Antonio Maria Regidor, a victim of the Cavite mutiny repre of 1872, who had escaped from the Marianas and was now in London, where he had a legal practice; and the two artists Luna and Hidalgo, who, realizing that Madrid artistic backwater, had by this time moved to Paris, The students, whose apathy and disunion had wrecked § Circulo Hispano-Filipino, soon began to regret its demise this time Rizal, who had won the esteem of his professors Spanish fellow-students (indeed of all the Spaniards who. him) was beginning to be listened to by the Filipinos; but a deal of the old canker still remained. On 2 Janvary 18 meeting was held at the house of the three Paterno broth Pedro, Maximino and Antonio, to discuss the revival Circulo. In his diary Rizal noted what followed My proposal concerning the book was unsnimously accepted ‘tects they raed cules and oboe tn cee somewhat singular, following which several gentlemen ‘ethout wiohing 0 talk any more about ie Though he did not mention it, he realized that wl bochind this was the unwillingness of the richer students to a lead in subscribing money. In the key position here stood senior Filipino graduate, Pedro Paterno, a cise friend with whom Rizal had many affinities, Paterno being a bud writer witha deep interest in Tagalog poetry and the same d 4s Rizal to see the Philippines treated with more dignity Pedro Paterno, who was later to distinguish himself in the Philippine Republic, was at this time disinclined to sa 2B Peciano Theanly known Narcisa Taken around the turn the cooruryTHE TOASTING sPEECH simself with responsibility. In fact it was the leadership, or on-leadership, of Pedro Paterni which was in a curious way the main obstacle Rizal had to'contend with during his first two sass in Madrid. He and the Paternos were family friends, very jauch of the same vintage in Filipino society, and realizing the sital importance of unity he never uttered an adverse word about them, Only to his diary, and then only in code, did he confide his awareness of their shortcomings ‘The following day, at the Café de Madrid, the Circulo was again discussed. In his diary Rizal commented with irony: As to the book, Graciano would write on the Filipino woman; irre also; Maximino on Letamendi, It seems that the Circulo toil not fare well ‘e-vas encounters such as this which led him to the decision, which he revealed to none, to undertake the book on his own’ and once this decision was made, and as he revolved the idea in his mind over the following months, the form of the book came to take a different shape. It would still be a book which in its completeness explained the whole Philippine problem from very main aspect; but rather than write it as a series of essays he would use a form of greater power and appeal. He would write it as a novel During the first six months of the year 1884 he was heavily involved in the studies which in June led to his receiving his licentiate in medicine and a mass of distinctions in philosophy and letters; but later in the year his friends noticed him about ‘es than usual. Without word © anyone leting tbe presumed that he kept to his room on account of special studies, he had At Luna's studio in Pasi begun writing the story of Elias, Ibaera, and Maria Clara, the hovel that was to shake the foundations of Spanish power in the Philippines. 8 Juan Luna (left), Rizal and Valentin Ventura (right) Mid-year an event occurred which served suddenly to pro- ict the Filipino community into the public eye in exactly the ‘ype of way he knew was needed before anyone in Spain would ‘Sstiously listen to the Filipino voice. In connexion with a ‘onal Exhibition of Fine Arts given in Madrid, a contest was 79JOURNEY INTO LIGHT ‘THE TOASTING SPEFCH ‘of its cocoon. Day was breaking over those regions; and the jpino race, made lethargic during the night of history, while un had becn shining on other lands, was being awakened py the shock of contact with Western peoples to demand! light, fie and civilization ‘Without mentioning them specifically, he referred to the friars, ‘myopic pygmies who, assured of the present, fail to project their vision into the future’ Sickly nurses, he described ther, corrupted and corrupting, engaged in stifling all legiti- fate sentiments, and who ‘by perverting the heart of the people, sow among them the sceds of discord, to reap later the farvest, the woll’s-bane, the death of future generations’, ‘After paying ample tribute to Spain, he reminded his listeners, with politeness but with point, that a national flaz and the power that goes with it have no meaning if those beneath that flag are not held together by love and affection, by a fusion of ideas. In raising his glass to the two painters, he with dexterity made it clear that the banquet gave Filipinos the opportunity to salute two of their countey’s most illustrious sons, while the Spanish guests, in coming equally to honour them, were giving ‘Shape to the mutual embrace of two races that [ove and esteem cach other, united morally, socially, and politically in the span of four centuries, in order to form in the future one nation single in spirit, in duties, in aims, in privileges’ He proposed the toast to Luna and Hidalgo and all who had sided them in their art studies; to Filipino youth, ‘sacred hope ‘of my fatherland”, that they might emulate such high examples to Spain, ‘solicitous and attentive to the welfare of her provinces’, in the hope that she might soon put into practice her s0-long- planned reforms; and lastly—a typical Rizal touch—to the parents who by their sacrifices had sent their sons so far. Tewas a formidable speech, a four de force. What the Spaniards, Present thought of it can only be judged from the fact that the Fberal press reported the speech in extenso; one would imagine that there were among the guests a number who found him impressive but disconcerting. As for the Filipinos, they knew held for artists of Spanish nationality. To the astounded ju tion of the Filipino students, the judges awarded the first to Juan Luna, and the second prize to Felix Resu Hidalgo, the awards receiving nation wide publicity Luna was down from Paris, and on 25 June the students a banquet at the Restaurant Inglés in honour of him absent Hidalgo. The students realized they must make the of the occasion. At the banquet they mustered every emi Spaniard they knew, and invited members of the press moment of the evening was to be the toast to the two proposed by Pedro Paterno. At the last moment, for re Which are not clear, Paterno declined the invitation to and the honour passed to Rizal Rizal was in the midst of his examinations, Short of ma (sugar prices were low, and Paciano had been obliged to lam his brother's allowance) he had for several months been ge deliberately short of food in order to pay for things he fe needed more, mainly books. He had formed the dangerous b ‘of cutting out meals, sometimes going without food for ‘entire day at a time. On the day of the banguet he had wont prize in a Greek competition, after which (and it being a t he wished no one to know, he wrote it in his diary in ¢ ‘Twas hungry and I had nothing to eat, nor money.” ‘When the moment came, and doubtless fortified by the d ner, he rose and made the most important speech of his ‘As a journalist described it! ‘A young Filipino physician, Dr. Don José Rizal, rose to b tessa. He was brief and casy in speech. When he spoke he to meditate on what he said, and his likeable aspect, of thoug ‘countenance, drew his audience from the first moment. Effortlessly as it seemed, and with the elegance the oved demanded, he combined a discerning tribute to the two ‘with a major political statement. ‘The patriarchal era in the Philippines, he said in this p the speech, was passing; the oriental chrysalis was coming. * Cited by Rafael Palma: Aivgrafia de Rizal, Manila 1949; trans. Onset, The Pride of the Malay Race, New York 1949. 80. “Teams, Roman Ozaet, 0p ct arJOURNEY INTO LIGHT simply that his speech was like nothing they had ever before. Luna and Hidalgo had won for them an opporty Rizal had shown them how to use it; and from that forth a new spirit was evident in the student comm There was more cohesion, a far greater interest in the P pines as a political problem, and much less unwillingn speak out for themselves. One or two of the students emulated him by writing polemical articles in the newapy Gambling declined, to be replaced by—Rizal’s choice studies were pursued with more vigour, Without ‘combat with anyone—a thing he disliked and would avoid; cost—he had become the leader and chief spokesman of. Filipinos in Spain. “In the Philippines, to which the students sent copies of! ‘Madrid newspapers, the effect of the brindis (toasting) as it came to be called, in that atmosphere of cautious ‘was different. Paciano, having his first experience of his b dynamism, reported that the speech was being widely di some saying that José had gone far enough and should further, others that the speech had made him many enen and all being united in the opinion that José should on account attempt to return to the Philippines. Te was the old attitude of 1872, when mention of the Burgos and Cavite was forbidden in the house, an common in varying degrees to all who live under despotic: Paciano, merely reporting, implied his continned confideno his brother, but he felt bound to tell him that their mother deeply worried. Teodora Alonso, who had once said that, son would end by being beheaded if he went on with his stud hadrundoubtedly recognized in the brindis speech the dang step he had taken toward the fulfilment of such a realizat should he return. She was in addition deeply shocked by son’s scientific approach to religion, which she mistook atheism, In a typical mother’s letter she begged him involve himself in matters that gave offence, not to fail in Christian duties, and warned him that there are times science can lead to perdition. In fact, from this moment 82 ‘Te TOASTING SPEECH pother, Who had inspired so much of his intellectual develop ent, found herself mentally in the dark in much that concerned fer son. Loyally she would hear no ill of him, but to the end she fever understood either his politics or his religious views. Each felonged mentally to diferent centuries. In Madeid, where he had not yet received Paciano’s letter of warning, he was casting a distant eye on return to the Philip- pines with a view to earning his living there a8 a doctor. If he feturned, he was anxious to do so with the most up-to-date mnedical knowledge obtainable. Like Luna and Hidalgo in their field of art, he had come to realize that for a medical student t00 Madrid was not the ideal place. Being shown round a hospital during his Paris visit the year before, he had noticed how far French clinical standards were in advance of even the best he had cen in Madrid. Over the past two years he had become much more interested in medicine and aware of the advances in medical science taking place in other parts of Europe. His advancing studies brought him in touch with Spanish doctors trained in German medical science. In June he wrote to the family: Since the month of February I have joined a review course, 6 pesos monthly in order to be up to date onthe most modert ides in medicine, which are German, inasmuch as the theories I studied ja Manila, though good of course, were all ofthe French school, and here almost all the professors belong to the modern school. He had another year before him in Madrid. His licentiate Permitted him already to practise medicine, but he wished to biain a doctorate, at the same time becoming a licenciado in Philosophy and letters, enabling him if need be to teach. But it is clear that he was already feeling the need to go closer to the centres of the modern school of medicine, The idea of going to Germany—an idea which was to prove profoundly important to him—when he had completed his studies in Spain, was aes Meanwhile he continued writing hi novel. The only indul- Sences he permitted himself were an occasional lottery ticket 4nd visits to the theatre, in which his preference was for drama 83JOURNEY INTO LIGHT. and his taste discerning. He was so impressed by the I actor Rossi's performance in Hamlet that he went to it one week. ‘And behind the prodigious amount of work and act the inner Rizal whom so few really knew. He was still wa to Leonor Rivera and receiving letters from her. Her le were apparently tender, loving, and cheerful; but from 9 the few friends who knew of his feelings for her he was a of the truth, which was that his departure had affected health. She had become thin and was frequently contin illness brought on by insomaia. A friend who had recently Leonor described her to him: She is much deteriorated, your betrothed, effect no doubt of preoccupies her. She who believes ic is the frst time she is exper ing Amor, having made a sacrifice for the man of her heart, sees that instead of approaching, the happy ending is drawing by gigantic steps—what heart will not be touched by such a e ‘The knowledge of Leonor ill and unhappy was ast determinant directing his steps back to the Philippines. He a sense of not having been fair to Leonor. Since comin Europe he had realized more fully the depth of her love for h He knew that he must return as soon as he could and put thi right by marriage, if she would still have him. ‘A note of anxiety can be detected in his thoughts Leonor, When she wrote something in a letter that partic pleased him, he noted the fact in his diary in code. And so where at the back of his mind dwelt the sense of a disa superyening on this strange love by correspondence. It cruel presentiment again, to be spoken of to none. Someti for weeks it would pass unnoticed. Then it would make’ presence felt again, mainly in dreams of that kind ‘waking, give the indefinable impression that they are not m dreams but portents, and always concerned with those to him. * Lewer from Matiano Catighac, 27 June 1884, Ep. Riz, Val. 1, no 84 ‘THE TOASTING SPEECH {1p Singapore on his way to Europe he had dreamt of Paciano’s death, but with such vividness that he thought of cabling to find Gut if it was true, At sea he had had a nightmare filled with Joenace inwhich hissister Narcisa wasinvolved ; while concerning Leonor and himself his Madrid diary contains two extraor- dinary entries, One, dated 25 January 1884, reads: ‘Tonight had a very gloomy dream (wn sueto bin tite). It seemed rine Ten heck to the Philippines, but what a gloomy reception! Nis parents didn’t appear, and [in code this part} Leonor had been Gnfslehful; but of an infidelity so great that it had no remedy, ‘Knowing what was later to happen, it can be seen in this how close his dreams sometimes were to portents, making more ‘understandable the curious impulse that made him want a record such dreams “The other entry equally arresting. st Jamzary 188. Night. Mourafal am. 1 do not know what vague melancholy, what JEthatt loneliness stifles te sou, sinilar tthe profound sadness Of cts ster a tumultuous sjocng, to «ct alter an exceedingly apps uaion. Two nights ago, that 30 December, Thad frightful nighmare when 1 aimose died T dreamed that, imitating an actor Inscene in wich he die, 1 fl vividly that my Breath Was failing Bhd was rapidly losing strength. Then my son became dim and dense darkness, like that of nothingnes, overpowered me: the Sygush of death, I wanted fo shout and ack for help from Antonio Fatrno,ecling that Iwas about die. Tawoke weak and breathless On exactly the date of this dream thirteen years later he was shot! At the time of this dream he had not yet seen Hamlet, but when a few wecks later he did so, remembrances of the dream may perhaps explain the intensity of interest that made him go 2 The prescance of Ri, in which dreams contributed onl «small pat, ws cutrabedinary, wergng om the pays In hr novels there are numerous ‘ciher describing jnedents which, log ofr the books wete publi, and en knows with no alien on hie par actually took place, im stangely Ssulor condiion, nis own ie: La some eases the resemblance betree the Ecko scene snd the sequent etal events vo close hat in memory one sptto confuse the ono. can think of nothing ele quite like ths in eeatare 85JOURNEY INTO LIGHT and sce it a second time, Miguel de Unamuno,! in one of numerous tributes to Rizal, called him the Tagalog Hi During these particular months in Madrid there is singularly apposite in the description, ‘There are moments he is very much the Hamlet of Acts T and IT IV Final Year in Madrid ‘sit 10 specialize tn ophihalmic surgery—his father's refusal to tre him ander his rf peparing to fo Garnany { Tuc vswrrsiry year began, and he resumed his heavy pro- gramme of scholastic work, meanwhile carrying on with the sovel and writing to the newspapers whenever an occasion ofered, a practice in which he found himself joined by other students, all of them sedulously aiming at drawing attention to ‘be rcal situation and plight of the Philippines. In a speech delivered at the students’ customary end-of-year dinner, at the Habanero, he surveyed with approval the great changes ‘at had come over the community, recalling with humour the stuation two years earlier, which differed so much from the present that it was already like a bygone era. In fact, in the Sense that this was a congratulation, it should have been the sudents who offered it to him, as at a similar dinner exactly a year later, when he was no longer in Spain, they did, a friend ‘riting afterwards to tell him that the students “with emotion and enthusiasm saluted you phreneticaly’, In the Philippines too, though undoubtedly he had made snemics among the Filipino bourgesisic, all too nervously ready 'e display their adhesion to authority and their contempt for a fiibustero,» his influence was beginning to be felt. Copies of Spanish newspapers were now regular enclosures in students! Hetiers from Europe to their friends, who in the Philippines culated them to others. ‘The brindis speech in particular 25 in this way widely read; and among those who had known im at the Ateneo and at Santo Tomés, his words evoked a Pccial response, Somewhere far away on the other side of the ei 2 Miguel ge Uaamnuno (1864-1036), philosopher and writer, princi Agus ote neato 0 orm spn wre ta att of the wrentsthceohuy Geamune desced Hansell at's sower {almost untransatable word used solely in the Philippines, implying ‘doubt und apiator of consciences! y ppines, imply isc opponent of the Spaniard foredootned f0 diester Ee 87JOURNEY INTO LICHT FINAL YEAR IN MADRID ‘world someone was working for them, speaking the truth; them. ‘Writing of those years Antonio Luna, younger brother painter and who later met his death as a revolutionary ge expressed it perhaps more clearly and felicitously than else: is casier for me to send you your monthly allowance than the price ee ere ee WJoned hope of what better times may bring us [mean ey, ot eae ee ey SF complete it, when our assistance {to you] will finish; and then {oill see if in Hongkong our parents will be permitied to visit you, Joi [say in Hongkong because since you know English or ean learn Pvithoue much bother, i will be easy for you to establish yourself there. + ‘With its rather loose grammar, almost total lack of full stops, restrained wording, but firm meaning, this is a typical Paciano deter ‘The fact was, as José was to discover considerably later, that his Madrid activities, and particularly the brindis speech, had thrown the family into such anxiety and emotional disarray that his father had warned Paciano in plain words that should José return home he would refuse to receive him under his roof. With his customary common sense and dedication to their joint cavse, Paciano made no mention ofthis to his brother. He imply, inthe phrases quoted above, let out s hint, the customary manner ‘of members of the Rizal family when communicating with each other, certainas they always were ofbeing understood completely. tis evident that this letter decided José to continue with his, plans, which at this juncture—early 1885—were to acquire practical experience of the most up-to-date ophthalmic surgery, Prior to returning to the Philippines and marrying Leonor, the ‘ultimate course on which he was determined, though he did not tell this to Paciano. In March he mentioned going to England for ophthalmics; he was still not sure where he could find the best facilities for the minimum expense. But when he left Madrid in July on the first leg of his northward journey, his sights were once more set on Germany. ‘This can be deduced from a story recounted by Maximo Viola, a Filipino then in his final year as a medical student in Barcelona, and with whom Rizal stayed for a few days before ‘ontinuing his journey to Paris. In a delightful memoir written in 1913, Dr. Viola recalled:* For us Rizal appeared an extraordinary man who, from afar, Poleatal carved by his own actity, showed us the way tp SNe rn btn] wh aon, eimai cpiy weighing trove thoughts, readily, enthusiastically ‘shin us there was an echo which, though mid, answered his In November 1884, worried by the burden of expendit ‘was imposing on Paciano in view of the continuingly low fof sugar, he wrote to his brother to say that in the fnterest he thought he should come home, He did not swish to yet, his mind being set on going to Germany, whi the same time he was becoming increasingly interest ophthalmic surgery, considering that when he did finaly xe to the Philippines he would be able to make a better liv a specialist than as a general practitioner, and in his choi this particular branch of surgery having in mind his m blindness. Paciano replied on x January 1885:* We have received your letter dated 16th Nov., in which you among other things, that you are already thinking of return the family interest: since this is somewhat delicate, 0 res needs thinking about a little; for my part, if you ask my opini Seems to me that, since there is no guarantee of what your may not occasion in the way of distress for our aged parents, 7 Antonio Lana stadied phatmacr in Europe, but hit ea interests cacy tery and hover of Herr; be mas anenpet anon Und sila nthe handling of other weapons. ‘The taoct ficient ml SBiuesnce Aguinaldo had ‘luring the Philippine War of Indepen ‘Sfuut the Coted States, Luna, ike Bonifacio, sexs shot om Au BES in t8oo, Alcjandrime, who condoned Aguinaldo’s conduct in Gf Bonifase, tondemned him ia this stance, describing, op. i at asthe greatest stain that Aguinaldo had consented t be writen pals of our story Hie consbdered that Aguinald acted sexins bs Jitdument in allawing itself to be influenced by those about him * Bp. Ri., Vol 90.73. 2 Maxime Vi ‘ependix to Bac Mis Viajes com of Dr. Rixal, Maniaxon, reproduced ssa, de Foe Rival, Vol I, Rial Centennial Commission, 2981 89 88JOURNEY INTO LicHT: As we were living in the sa bs ae room it happened that my at as dea oi como of ging to bed cry lighting ta nhs bedside table, opening his book, and aie se ort Pasting ou his ight ee ‘goodnight to me. And since he observe this custom rigidly crery nights T in devotion, and on being ake iit was vag! or ume othe ‘that he recited, he explained that it was neither one nor the otf L methodical sudy of German that consisted af leariog sleeping five radical words in the, German dion multiplied bythe 365 days of the year would seed, secon 2 fn making sone ing ta thin oh tine Vv Ophthalmic Studies in Paris and Heidelberg guiaant to Louis de Weeker—to Otto Becher—Wilhelmsfeld— ‘parity as a criter wz REACHED Paris late in July 1885, and went to stay at oon Luna's studio on Boulevard Arago in the southern part of the city, not far from the Place d’Ttalie. His novel, in which for the immediate moment his political aims were embodied, was shout half-finished, and while staying with Luna he continued sorking on it. In Pari, if he did not know it already, he discovered that on the Rue du Cherche-Midi, within comfortable walking distance of where he was staying, was a large eye clinic run by the most famous ophthalmologist in Europe, Louis de Wecker. How he ret Wecker is uncertain, but what seems most likely is that he simply asked for an interview, showed his credentials—he now had his doctorate in medicine—and asked if he could work under him. There is something curiously arresting about this unknown Filipino, from a country of which few had ever heard, thousands (of miles from home and just out from his studies, going without hesitation to the greatest expert in the subject he was interested in, and asking—modestly, one may be sure, but without any difidence—whether he would take him in. The fact was, of ‘course, that it did not occur to him to go to anyone other than the best; and if anyone had told him this was unusual it would have surprised him. Tt would be interesting to know what Louis de Wecker thought when he first saw Rizal, whom Wecker, in common ‘vith most Parisians at this time, probably took to be a Japanese, and who to European eyes looked even younger than he was, Dr. Viola, one ofthe very few to see inaction Rizal's «al diaipline of memory was interested ns nondeas ‘muuch it contributed to his repute as a possessor of encyelogs Knowledge, and asked him if he would submit it to Together they learned by heart a paragraph of reasa length from an engineering textbook neither of them had fore. At the time Viola concluded that Rizal's memo Just ordinary. A. year later, however, he changed his opt when to his astonishment Rizal rected the entice para him ‘as fhe had just committed it to memary that very tons 2 “Holy, holy, bly.” onJOURNEY INTO LIGHT scarcely more than a boy. Anyway he took him in, and October 1885 to January 1886 he worked as one of We assistants. the past thirty years—become 2 discipline indeper general surgery, and there were still very few eye hospit Burope. Louis de Wecker, who was not only a famous but an innovator responsible for practical advances is surgery, particularly in cataract, had an enormous practi Patients coming from all over the world and including me of several of the royal familiesof Europe. His clinic was n0| demand as a training place for doctors. Rizal's fellow-assis included men from Italy, Greece, Austria, Poland, Ger Spain, the United States and Latin America, as well ag France,allof them speaking French, alanguage which during months he came to speak almost as well as he spoke ‘The practical opportunities afforded at the clinic were ‘extent and standard available nowhere else in the world, he learned a great deal in a surprisingly short time. ‘T how to perform all the operations," he wrote to the family 1 January 1886, a statement which for a moment leaves incredulous until remembering that he never said anything wl as not true, and had already passed high in surgery in Mi ‘There is also in the statement a hint of that laconic tone in he was apt to refer to his own achievements, as when, ws his diary for the day when he made the Brindis speech, he si noted, “Today I delivered a specch.’ Certainly Wecker thought highly of him, treating him al like a son; and on several occasions he was a guest at the d ‘magnificent house, filled with works of art and presents f royalty, just off the Champs-Elysées. But Rizal was still determined to go to Germany. Ashe to the family: shall have to train in studying the ocular fundus, which needs: Practice. In Germany, I'am told that they teach this wel On 1 February he left Paris in snow, and set out by train what he knew by then to be the most important centre 92 OPHTHALMIC STUDIES IN PARIS AND HEIDELBERG sivanced ophthalmic researc in Germany—the Universitte atenwinik at Heidelberg. Louis de Wecker, who seems to Ae appreciated his motive, advised him however to return to fim in Paris in due courses and it was with the idea of making fa comparatively short visit chat Rizal entered Germany, the Spuntcy in which the seal was to be set on the formative period of his ie ‘The beginnings were inauspicious. Gers he as te Fone Sonn few isis ree ee eo ete) snes on flo, mtr, nl Geran even the aly ot als eee a Cope ey Te secre en gr gg era ler erg ee ee tte teres mee een ee rg ae oe ey a In Heidelberg snow and ice lay everywhere, and it was bitterly cold, He found lodgings; they were cheaper than anything he could have found in Paris, but still dearer than he had counted on; and with the additional cost of having to keep 4 fire going all the time ‘lest one freeze’, he saw his money running out sooner than expected. ‘Another teouble was hia German, Although he coald under- stand written German fairly well, he found he had the greatest dificulty understanding what anybody said, On his first evening, when he was befriended by a group of Swabian students at a beercella, conversation had to be conducted largely in Latin. Nevertheless, despite this difficulty, he was admitted to the Avgenklinik as an assistant the day after his arrival, though to begin with working only half-days, devoting the rest of his time to German, On 17 February he wrote: For 13 day n assisting at this city's elinic for eye patients, ip euiio ai as oe eon ics not so famous nor is he such a grest surgeon a8 Dr. de Wecker of Paris; but in Germany he enjoys much renown and has written ‘any works. 93JOURNEY INTO LiGHT Actually Orto Becker was one of those all-round men of the nineteenth century produced so many. A Vienna-t ophthalmologist, the professorship at Heidelberg had created for him. His hospital there, designed according specifications and still in full use, became the model fo hospitals throughout Germany. Musical and artistic, he founder of a snuseum of art in Heidelberg and a personal fe of Brahms Associated with him was the physiologist Wilhelm KOh who as well as discovering several of the enzymes in the hum body—the word enzyme is his creation—was the first person rove that the eye receives the stimulus of light on the sam Principle as a photographic plate does via the lens of a can With such men in charge it can be scen at once that the at Heidelberg lay more pronouncedly on research than ft at the Wecker clinic in Paris; and Heidelberg being in days just a quiet country town beside the Neckar there far fewer operations. After a month he wrote: HET do not see as many operations a8 I saw in Paris, here T stu ‘ore the basic principles and fundamentals, Essentially practical in nature, he hankered at first after greater active experience under Louis de Wecker, ‘who surgeon seems to me better than those I have seen so fat’. aim, he told the family, was to go to Paris again in the of 1887, prior to returning to the Philippines and setting an eye clinic of his own. 2 In March he was able to economize to the extent of dal ‘without a fire. The statement makes one shiver to think how his room must have been, but as his European friends notie he had a resistance to cold which was often greater than thel ‘The spring came, his first experience of that spring oft north which, so Jong awaited, comes with such magic and beaut and it inspired the first of his poems of maturity, one of three poems on which his reputation as a poet reste —A Flores de Heidelberg, an. enchanting evocation of two lam Femote from each other and utterly different. To the Flowers of Heidelberg. 4 Josephine BrackenOPHTHALMIC STUDIES IN PARIS AND HEIDELBERG Go, flowers of a foreign land, sovin by travellers along the way, zo to miy country, and beneath her blue skies, 2uardian of my desires, fell of this wanderer, and of his faith that is nourished by his native sol, Go and tell—tell how even when dawn opened your petals for the first time beside the frozen Neckar yan found him beside you, thoughtful and silent amid the epring that never fails to come. Iris both an evocation and a prayer for the well-being of the Philippines, the first mark of his ‘arrival’ as a writer, a3 also of the deepening and mellowing of his thought which took place during these months in Germany. In the same week as he wrote this poem he had an encounter ‘which carried this mellowing a stage further. He was becoming increasingly worried about his inability to bring his German up to standard, his trouble being that it was impossible to find anyone in Heidelberg willing to teach him for next to nothing, ‘which as all he could afford. On a short visit to Baden (one of his guidebook visits) he by chance came into conversation with two other visitors, a Protestant pastor, the Reverend Karl Ullmer, and his wife. It was a meeting of immediate sympathy. Ullmer was vicar of Withelmsfeld, a village high in the bills and forests west of Heidelberg. When he heard about Rizal’s language difficulties Ullmer made the suggestion that he should leave Heidelberg temporarily and come to stay at Withelmsfeld, where he could live cheaply and meanwhile thoroughly soak himself in the language. In the last week of April, at the height of spring, he moved to Wilhelmsfeld where he stayed twomonths living asa paying guest of the Ullmer family. There inthe peace of rural Germany, in a room with a view over winding valleys, Picturesque farmhouses, and hills crowned by forests of pine, he achieved the final chapters of the novel which had now been ‘with him for nearly two years, and perfected his German under Karl Uiler’s guidance. Withelmsfeld was his first intimate experience of European, family life, and it could not have been a happier one. Later, in to Ferinond Blurmenteitt, 8331 Ferdinand Blumentrite Ae he way when Rival knew i In ater ie 12 Rudolph Virchow Foremost anthropologist in Europe 95