Nationalists -- Philippines -- Fiction; Philippine fiction (Spanish) -- Translations into English; Philippines -- History -- Fiction
[12] The reference is to the novel Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer),
the author’s first work, of which, the present is in a way a
continuation.—Tr.
[13] This legend is still current among the Tagalogs. It circulates in
various forms, the commonest being that the king was so confined for
defying the lightning; and it takes no great stretch of the imagination
to fancy in this idea a reference to the firearms used by the Spanish
conquerors. Quite recently (January 1909), when the nearly extinct
volcano of Banahao shook itself and scattered a few tons of mud over
the surrounding landscape, the people thereabout recalled this old
legend, saying that it was their King Bernardo making another effort to
get that right foot loose.—Tr.
[14] The reference is to Noli Me Tangere, in which Sinang appears.
[15] The Dominican school of secondary instruction in Manila.—Tr.
[16] “The studies of secondary instruction given in Santo Tomas, in the
college of San Juan de Letran, and of San José, and in the private
schools, had the defects inherent in the plan of instruction which the
friars developed in the Philippines. It suited their plans that
scientific and literary knowledge should not become general nor very
extensive, for which reason they took but little interest in the study
of those subjects or in the quality of the instruction. Their
educational establishments were places of luxury for the children of
wealthy and well-to-do families rather than establishments in which to
perfect and develop the minds of the Filipino youth. It is true they
were careful to give them a religious education, tending to make them
respect the omnipotent power (sic) of the monastic corporations.
“The intellectual powers were made dormant by devoting a greater part
of the time to the study of Latin, to which they attached an
extraordinary importance, for the purpose of discouraging pupils from
studying the exact and experimental sciences and from gaining a
knowledge of true literary studies.
“The philosophic system explained was naturally the scholastic one,
with an exceedingly refined and subtile logic, and with deficient ideas
upon physics. By the study of Latin, and their philosophic systems,
they converted their pupils into automatic machines rather than into
practical men prepared to battle with life.”—Census of the Philippine
Islands (Washington, 1905), Volume III, pp. 601, 602.
[17] The nature of this booklet, in Tagalog, is made clear in several
passages. It was issued by the Franciscans, but proved too outspoken
for even Latin refinement, and was suppressed by the Order itself.—Tr.
[18] The rectory or parish house.
[19] Friends of the author, who suffered in Weyler’s expedition,
mentioned below.—Tr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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