? Paris
Felicitates his friend Lete for his active campaign in La Correspondencia Militar in favor of our country and wishes sincerely that he may continue in such a noble as well as disinterested undertaking. Needless to say the columns of La Solidaridad are open to his pen.
03-612 [Reformists]
[1891?] ?
From: Eduardo de Lete
To: ?
Lete appreciates Rizal’s congratulations – He is on the staff of La Reforma – Continues his patriotic labors – The task is common, the goal only one – “May fortune guide us!
* * *
Eduardo de Lete
Esteems very much the congratulations of his friend Rizal, so much more as they seem to him undeserved, for if his writings can win some esteem for their author, it is because they are a most faithful portrayal of the tortures or the hatred in which his mind nourishes.
He did not expect any applause nor did he try to break the isolation in which fatality or his dullness has placed him to his regret, and therefore he esteems them much more. He fulfilled and fulfills a sacred duty, in the penumbra, indeed, but it is what always animated his decisions and he was and is satisfied.
And he would have done more had he more chance. He did not merit the applause therefore, because it will belittle him more than flatter him. Applause is bestowed on the exception or on merit, but not on one who never learned to love the native country exceptionally or occasionally nor valued it as a singular virtue.
This is not a stroke of haughtiness; he knows full well that his friend Rizal never harbored such purposes; quite on the contrary, he believes without reservation that his congratulations are a reflection of friendship and of patriotic enthusiasm. But he will agree that they could be interpreted by that epigrammatic applause that he received on another occasion expressed in ingenuous but precise words: “I didn’t expect such a thing from you” with which he wished to say undoubtedly that he did not expect less . . . .
As for the rest, he is grateful also for the offer of the columns of La Solidaridad, but probably he cannot, though with regret, avail himself of the generosity, for he is very busy and in addition, he is on the editorial staff of another newspaper, Le Reforma.
The task is common and if the routes are diverse, the goal is only one where the good ones will inevitably meet on the day of the triumph or defeat, all the forces being joined together in one common effort.
May fortune guide us! May it not always be antagonistic or disdainful!
Friendship is also the same and when it is deep knows how to overcome the miseries of reality.
Receives a fraternal embrace from one whom you know loves you like a brother.
EDUARDO
03-613 [Reformists]