Madrid
Defense of the truth, humanity, and justice is undeserved if it is to be thanked for – We need the experience and the applause of the old – Let us turn our eyes towards our elders – Leave us in writing our thoughts and the fruits of your experience – Many have died without bequeathing to us nothing more than the fame of their name – There is individual progress, but not national – A tear and a just word when one succumbs – “I’ve suffered harsh death for saving men. What have you done for your brother?”
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Madrid, Principe
7 January 1891
FATHER VICENTE GARCIA
Manila
MY ESTEEMED SIR,
I have long wished to write you, not to thank you for the just defense that you, before anybody else, dared to write about my first book, but to seek light for the uncertain road of the future. I say that I have no intention to thank you because that would offend you, and because the steps that you have taken in defense of the truth, of humanity, and of justice would lose their value if they are to be thanked for. May God reward them and men content themselves in admiring and imitating them!
I who belong to the young generation, anxious to do something for their country and uneasy about the mysterious future. I need to come to men who have seen much and studied more so that with their experience they may supplement our youth and limited knowledge. We need besides the applause and the blessing of the old to encourage us in the colossal struggle and the gigantic campaign that we have thrown over our dwarfish shoulders. However great is our enthusiasm, however confident is our youth, however promising are our illusions, we hesitate nevertheless in certain moments, especially when we find ourselves alone and abandoned.
In the titanic task of common generation, without stopping in our forward march, from time to time we turn our eyes toward our elders to read on their faces their judgment of our actions. For this thirst of understanding the past of knowledge, to enter into the future, we go to persons like you. Leave us in writing your thoughts and the fruits of your long experience so that condensed in a book, we may not have to study again what you have already studied and that we may increase the heritage that we receive from you, either expanding it or adding to it our own harvest.
The smallness of the advancement that the Filipinos have made in three centuries of Hispanism is all due, in my opinion, to the fact that our talented men have died without bequeathing to us nothing more than the fame of their name. we have had very great intellects; we have had a Pinpin, a Dr. Pilapil, a Father Pelaez, a Father Mariano Garcia, a Dr. Joson, and others. We have still a Benedicto Luna, a Lorenzo Francisco, and more. Nevertheless, all that these men have studied, learned, and discovered will die with them and end in them, and shall go back to recommence the study of life. There is then individual progress or improvement in the Philippines, but there is no national, general progress. Here you have the individual as the only one whom improves and not the species.
In the twilight of life, when in the fresh afternoon breeze one reflects on the struggles and weariness of the day, how sweet would it be to communicate your thoughts to those who are preparing for the battles of the following day!
The beautiful and immaculate career of your life, ending in the sublime work of the redemption of the wretched and the suffering, would be the most beautiful sanction of our sacrifices and a holy blessing to encourage us in the struggle. I do not wish to flatter you by telling you that you will still live long. May you live longer than I for the glory of your native country and my satisfaction, for surely you will have a tear and a just word when I succumb for the cause I am defending! But, by the natural order of things, it seems that you are to die before me in a more or less distant time. What shall you say to your God, you a priest of a religion that has declared all men equal? What shall you say to God who has hated tyranny and has made human intellect free when He asks you, “What have you done for the unfortunate and the oppressed? In what have you employed your extraordinary intelligence and your enlightenment? Why have you not followed the impulses of your heart which has shuddered at seeing everywhere injustice, ignorance, objectness, and sufferings?” What shall you reply to that God when He tells you: “I have suffered harsh death for saving men. What have you done for your brothers?”
Pardon this frankness of my heart for there is no censure in it. Who am I? A youngster who is not yet a man, who has no other merit but to think according to his convictions and afterwards to express them frankly.
Admiring you always and wishing that you impart to us a part of your learning, I close this long letter of mine wishing you to enjoy good health.
Your affectionate servant who kisses your hand.
JOSE RIZAL
03-596 [Reformists]