25 April 1885

Albay

Albay, 25 April 1885

MR. JOSÉ RIZAL

ESTEEMED JOSÉ,

I inform you that on 23 March we left Calamba for Manila and on the 25th we left Manila for this capital of Albay, my new post. Olimpia and the younger boy, Cesareo, came with me and we arrived here safely. We left the older boy, Aristeo at Calamba with them.

They sent one here for meteorological work and observation of the volcano, Father Faura[1] came here on 23 April to give me instructions and to install with Father Batllo the meteorological apparatus. All sent you regards and they left on the 25 instant for Atimonan and Tayabas for the same purpose that is, for meteorological work. They give me as gratuity 12.50 pesos for meteorological work, 12.50 for the post office work and my salary of 41 as second class telegrapher and fifth class official of the service.

In view of all this, if you happen to write Father Faura request him to transfer me to Calamba, if possible. This priest has very great influence on the Inspector General of Telegraphs, the Director General of Civil Administration, Inspector General José Costa, and Director Barrantes. I believe that if Father Faura wishes it, these gentleman cannot refuse, for they esteem him.

We wish you good health and prompt return to these Islands.

Until here. You know already you have a brother-in-law who esteems you and you can command at any time.

SILVESTRE

P.S.

We here in Albay are well. We don’t know about those in Calamba, for we have not yet received a letter from them.

01-118 [Family]

1885?[2]

From: José Rizal

To: Paciano Rizal

Rizal suggests the abandonment of costly but useless feasts — Filipino women are less advanced than men — He is worried about the evil consequences of fanaticism — The older generation is beginning to support the younger — Rizal’s impression of the culture of Europeans.

* * *

…and I haven’t given any reason for it: fear for me is to draw attention to me which is prejudicial, for I think only of treating and studying diseases. I believe that they ought to show a calm confidence, concomitant of innocence and security, for there will always be time to weep. And moreover our mother ought to have more confidence in that God whom they call just and to think at the same time that not all misfortunes make one unfortunate. There are misfortunes that make one happy. For this reason also I want to go to prove that I fear nothing from nobody; there is no reason for it; that for the present I’m not yet exiled and I believe that the Spanish government, having already learned a lesson, will not punish this time an innocent man, for victims have the habit of haunting with their memory and killing for good the strongest powers. If you don’t order otherwise, as for example, that I spend some months in England to study practical mechanics (3 months), in Germany, medicine and science, with an allowance equal to what I get now, if more is not possible, I shall go home and have the pleasure of finding myself among you, never to be separated again. However advantageous a foreign country may be for me, it is not so much that it could compensate for the very great sacrifice that you make for me. The previous letters I have written you abound with these ideas and I need your reply. You told me about the fire there at home. This fire starting from pyrotechnics has led me to a rather remote idea which is that we ought to think little by little of changing our customs making them more practical.[3]You, for instance, with your prestige among the people there, ought to begin to instill in their minds the idea of abandoning festivals and other things that produce no immediate utility; such as, Thanksgiving Masses and other things of the sort. The money that goes to certain coffers doesn’t circulate and money that doesn’t circulate brings about the impoverishment of the country. Furthermore, over there we hate being exploited in every sense of the word and we ought to be tired of that now. Now that I think of the money that is spent on a feast, should that be used for the benefit of the people, would yield very much more profit.

On your word I believe in the goodness of the curate, whom I greet from here, but an idea occurs to me. If the women of Calamba, having a curate who is not at all fanatical, through their own initiative are so found of candles and images, what would become of them should a curate who is decidedly fanatical and an exploiter come and weight on their consciences like the night and squeeze them like a press? You must agree that if our sex there is not so advanced, very much less so is the opposite sex that revolves and lives in that atmosphere that is found from the confessional to the sacristy and leads to great aberrations.

At present there are here two Filipinos—Messrs. Andrés and Arcadio del Rosario. They are the type of people passing generation, but if it passion, I believe that at least it sees the little lights that are beginning to shine. The other day Don Andrés was talking to me and he no longer maintains as at first certain axioms, he does not recognize any more the supposed facts, and at a dinner he declared himself on the side of youth and he offered a toast to it.

Here the cold is becoming intense, but I’m still without chilblains, which surprises me, now it is colder than in previous years. Here there had been and are still earthquakes; but although they aren’t comparable with ours, on the other hand they surpass them in their effects, for already… have sunk… monastery of the Middle Ages, and nothing more of value. That is all. This is so sure that we have here at present four lawyers, graduates of the Universidad Real y Pontificia de Manila [Real y Pontificia Universidad de Sto. Tomás de Manila] with very good grades, one of them being noted and famous for having practiced a long time. Placed in the midst of modern civilization they are like the Seven Sleepers for their naiveté and backwardness, and like country folk in a ballroom. And if this happens to them at Madrid which is not very distinguished for its culture and enlightenment, how would they appear amidst the people of France, England, and Germany where everyone reads the newspapers, where the middle class possess an education that the Manila aristocracy don’t have, nor anything like it. If we recall what I told you about my landlady at Paris, that Mme. Lesjardins, the chubby and plump little woman, and her husband who know fairly well general history and particularly that of their country, geography, and mathematics, and speak and write their native tongue correctly, how many of those great lords who hold high positions can say the same thing about themselves? And I’m assured the German people are even more so, and the English also. Thus, when we say here to a foreigner, introducing a friend: ”The gentleman is a lawyer, he has been a judge, notary public, etc., etc.”, he is stuck and he looks at him with a bit of surprise asking how laws can palpitate and how justice can have life under such unfavorable conditions. And without going further, among my countrymen I’m considered one of the most studious and of sufficient ability, but when I compare myself with many young men I have known abroad, I confess frankly I see myself on a very much inferior level, and I deduce that in order to reach their height I need many years of study, much money, and much more ability, and those young men, notwithstanding, are younger than I. I don’t mean the young men of this country among whom I know truly vulgar [ones] and it is not that they lack ability, no. They have much talent, much willingness, but the defective instruction makes them work hard though they profit less, as it happened to us over there; the kind of life they lead; cafés and billiard halls; the examples they see among the old ones and those who hold high positions; laziness and charlatanism; the fewness of the inducements the government offers to scholars, like there too, with the sole difference that over there we would like the rulers not to meddle at all with the students but to leave them alone in peace; upon seeing that one rises to power through the tongue and intrigue, membership in this or that party—all these contribute to the frustration of so many excellent abilities, so many young men who undoubtedly would amount to something if placed in another environment. What I regret most is that many of our countrymen already poisoned by this atmosphere, join parties against conscience; seek glory through money and at the cost of ridicule not through their own merit, but through banqueting and not realizing that such a glory is a paper flame that produces ashes which only soil and stain afterward. For this reason if the nephews must come, I would not want him to go to Madrid unless they have to study law for which it is indispensable and even convenient inasmuch as here are the best law professors that can be found in Spain, and as it is a profession in which language is a principal factor, I believe Madrid is the best school for it on account of the people’s character in all its phases.

At present, a classmate of mine is the physician Mr. Franco who was over there for a long time practicing his profession. He had been my professor, very notable above all for failing students, and who at the beginning of my course said he would fail all of us. Let Dandoy tell it when…

[The rest of the letter is missing]

01-118 [Family]

1885

From: José Rizal

To: Teodora Alonso[4]

Rizal assures his mother of his prudence — He prefers to live in obscurity — He trusts in God — He believes in the fundamental principles of the Catholic religion.

* * *

…might make you uneasy about me, I shall answer you that I do everything possible to please you. For more than a year now and following my father’s suggestions, I have withdrawn whenever it has been possible for me to do so and I have tried not to draw the attention of anybody to my person. I have been told not to write; well, I’ve dropped the pen, the only instrument that I had which I was beginning to wield not very badly; and if sometimes I’ve picked it up, it was because powerful reasons have compelled me to do so, and even then I’ve concealed my name out of love for that obscurity that I need so much. If in spite of this I still have enemies, well let them be! It is so difficult to live without troubles, but misfortune does not mean dishonor and misfortune is welcome if it will banish vilification and degradation. So long as we can keep the esteem of those who know us, so long as our conscience is not hostile to us in our meditations, what does the rest matter? We have been born in the midst of a society whose political life is so anomalous that we have no other hope but to submit or to succumb: Whichever is preferable conscience will decide. Let us then trust in God and in the sincerity of our intentions. If wishing and desiring the good brings misfortune as reward, what should we do? The greatest legacy that parents can bequeath to their children is rectitude in judgment, generosity in rights, and steadfastness in adversity; the greatest honor that a son can pay to his parents is integrity and a good name, that the acts of the son may never make his parents leave with indignation or shame, and the rest God will provide. Sorrows and miseries pass away with life and individuals; the family inherits the memory and blesses or curses the departed. I should like that just as I can … I can repeat and say aloud that I’m the son of the most honorable man and most pious women of my town, and may my parents never repent for having brought me into the world and if possible, may they at least feel satisfaction, if not pride, in mentioning me.

Concerning what you say about my duties as a Christian, I have the pleasure to be able to answer you that I haven’t stopped a moment in believing in the fundamental principles of our religion. To the beliefs of my childhood have succeeded the convictions of youth that with time will take root in me. A belief that cannot withstand examination and the test of time ought to pass on the memory and leave the heart. I must not try to live on illusions and falsehoods. What I believe in now, I believe rationally, and it is because my conscience cannot accept more than is compatible with reason. I can bow my head before an act that is mysterious to me whenever it doesn’t exist in fact, but never before an absurdity nor before a probability. Religion to me is the most sacred thing, the purest, most ethereal, that eschews all human adulterations and I believe that I would fail in my duty as a rational being if I would prostitute my reason and accept the absurd. I believe God would not punish me if, in trying to approach Him, I should use reason and intelligence, his most precious gift. I believe that, in order to honor Him more, all I can do is to present myself to Him making use of the best that He has given me, in the same way that in presenting myself before my parents I should wear the best dress they have given me. If some time I shall come to possess that divine spark that is called knowledge, I would not hesitate to use it for the service of God, and if in my ratiocinations, I should make a mistake, commit an error, God will not punish me…

[The rest of the letter is missing]

01-119 [Family]