Chapter VII: Of faults against academic discipline and means of checking them (7)

[103] The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: "El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno." Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.

[104] This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga's Estadismo, ii, pp. *60-63*.

[105] Literally, "I ordain and command"--the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.

[106] This last paragraph is not a part of Retana's letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana's words following the letter in his edition of the Estadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.

[107] The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy's Philippine Life, p. 205.

[108] "The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of 'reform' and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified." James A. LeRoy in Political Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.

[109] i.e., "Take and read."

[110] The comments of Victor S. Clark, in his Labor Conditions in the Philippines (Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.

Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novel Noli me tangere, often called the "Filipino bible," and the second from El Filibusterismo (both taken from LeRoy's Philippine Life in town and country, pp. 210-213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.

"The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes of being, or settling the question of essence and existence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they give fiestas in their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.

"But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?"

"I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII--no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries."

"The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of a representation of an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: 'Look at me, but don't touch me.' From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious 'cabinet,' and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The 'cabinet' was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: 'You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!'

"And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: 'The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!'"

[111] See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark's article in Bulletin no. 58, ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.

[112] Retana's praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in his Vida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review, Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.

[113] See Retana's Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).

[114] According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro's Asuntos filipinos (Madrid, 1897), pp. 221-277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: "We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry." The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer's Inhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79-83.

[115] St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints, i, pp. 249-272.

[116] St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192-202.

[117] Referring to the Katipunan, or Kataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, "Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country." This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron's Insurrección, pp. 51-59; Sawyer's Inhabitants, pp. 82, 83; and The Katipunan (Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.

[118] In a letter from James A. LeRoy, of June 27, 1906.

[119] J. A. LeRoy: Philippine Life.

[120] Chief among these men may be cited Francisco Giner de los Rios, of the Madrid University, who has established the Free Institution of Teaching in Madrid for the training of teachers. He follows principally American methods. Both Church and State have opposed him, but he has persevered and his institution has had good results.

[121] Apropos of the "Filipino soul," James A. LeRoy says, in the letter cited, ante, note 118, "No Filipino on earth, if pinned down, could tell what the 'Filipino soul' is today, as Tavera hints."