Chapter I

THE NATIONAL SOUL

I fervently believe in the existence of a national
soul which is created by the legends, traditions and
_ history of every people. This national soul becomes
greater as the history of the nation concerned is en-
riched by deeds which are glorious and of great bene-
fit to humanity.
At birth each individual receives a portion of this
national soul, and posterity will judge him according
to the ends to which he dedicated what he had so re-
ceived. A person who in his lifetime stained his share
of the national soul is a criminal dan1ned forever. One
who upon his death returns the share he had received
of the national soul without being able to aggrandize
it is a vulgar man. He is a patriot, a good-doer, or a
wise man who gives back his individual soul to the na-
tional soul enriched by good deeds, meritorious acts,
and virtues which are a pride to his people ru"'ld en-
hance the greatness of the national soul.
In this last ~ategory undoubtedly belong all those
who with their ideas, writings, and deeds have added
new and brilliant pages to the history of our country.
Among the greatest of our heroes I will mention the
following:
JOSE RIZAL
Rizal is always an example whom we should have
before us and whose teachings we should practice if
we want to be useful to our country. His works are
known to the whole world, but however great and
2 PRICE OF FREEDOM

admirable they are, I consider still more admirable the

lessons which we can get from the acts and thoughts
that he had expressed in confidence. In their public
actuations and behavior our great men can show their
inner selves in a favorable light, but in intimate situa-
tions they betray their true character, revealing it in
its prosaic naturalness.
The characteristics of the personality of Rizal
were his honesty, ingenuity, will-power, constancy and,
above all, his patriotism which he converted into his
cult and religion. Wherever he went and according
to the purpose which brought him to the different
countries where he lived, the first thing he did was to
distribute his time in accordance with a program which
he usually fastened by the side of his bed and which
he followed with the precision of a machine, not for one
day, one month, or one year, but always. The time
which he allotted for rest was spent in n1aking clay
statuettes or doing something manual but useful, like
binding a book, making a wooden box for his pistols,
etc., or in receiving those who lived with him and
trying through pleasant conversation to inculcate into
them his ideas and principles.
Rizal was the personification of probity and hon-
esty. Dr. Baldomero Roxas relates that in 1889 in Pa-
ris he and other compatriots who used to eat together
in a restaurant noticed that Rizal ,vas worried because
he did not receive on time · his pension. Yet at that
time he had received a draft for one thousand pesos
without any accompanying letter to indicate for what
purpose the money was remitted to him. The draft be-
ing drawn in his favor, they told him that he could
very well make use of it. Rizal promised to think th e
.
... . - . ... .. - 1
•'
 THE NATIONAL SOUL - 3

matter over, but on the following day he told them

(Roxas and his companions) that, being in doubt for
what object the money was sent, he had decided to re-
mit the one thousand pesos to M. H. del Pilar just in
case they were intended for the expenses of "La Soli-
daridad".
One of the subjects which he discussed frequently
with us were the means which we could make use of
in order to promote a revolution in the Philippines.
He e~essed his ideas on this point in these or similar
words: "I will never lead a disorderly revolution and
one which has no probability of success because I do
not want to burden my conscience with an imprudent
and useless spilling of blood, but whoever leads a revo-
1ution in the Philippines will have me at his side."
When the El Filibusterismo was being printed in
Ghent, I had a real anxiousness to read the original,
but because I sensed that Rizal might not want me to
do so, I desisted from asking his permission to read it.
I was in charge of bringing the manuscript to the press
and carrying back the proofs to the house, and I read
with avidity what was being printed. When Simoun
appeared in the first chapters of the work, Rizal ask-
ed me: "Do you know who is Simoun ?"
I answered that he was Crisostomo Ibarra.
"How do you know? Could he not be Elias?" he
continued.
I replied, "No, because Elias died at the foot of a
balete tree of the wounds which he received ·when they
pursued him in the lake."
Then he told me, "That is true, and I regret
having killed Elias instead of Crisostomo Ibarra; but
 .
4 PRICE OF FREEDOM

when·r-wrote the Noli Me Tangere, my health wa

badly broken and I never thought that I would be abl
to write its sequel and speak of a revolution. Other
wise, I would have preserved the life of Elias, who wa
a noble character, patriotic, self-denying and disinter
ested-necessary qualities in a man who leads a re
volution-whereas Crisostomo Ibarra was an egois
who only decided to provoke the rebellion when h1
was hurt in his interests, his person, his loves and all
the other things he held sacred. With men like hirn 1
success cannot be expected in their undertakings."
It appears strange to me that some of his bio-
graphers have presented Rizal as completely opposed
to the revolution of 1896 when what really happened
was this: The Katipunan, on the eve of the rebellion!
wanted to know the opinion of Rizal and they sent to
Dapitan one of their members, Pio Valenzuela, unde~
a plausible pretext. Upon being informed in detail o~
the organization and resources of the Katipunan, he
opined that the revolt should be delayed and proposed
that the cooperation of the educated and rich elements
be assured first, pointing to Antonio Luna as one pos1
sible liaison between the popular mass and the educa~
ted and rich class. Moises Salvador and Mamerto Na•
tividad who initiated me in the Katipunan, knowing
the friendship which I had with Luna, requested me,
to transmit to him the recommendation of Rizal, but
Luna refused on that occasion to join the revolution~
ary movement because he believed it was still pre-
mature.
In religious matters Rizal told me: "I have studied
thoroughly all the religions and their philosophies. I
began the study of Hebrew just to be able to read the
 THE NATIONAL SOUL 5
I

: Bible in its original, and I have decided after my pro-

1 found study not to believe anything other than the
:lictates of my reason and my conscience."
Rizal was a great bibliophile, but in visiting his
library, I wondered why he did not have the Ency-
:lopedia of Larousse of which he had spoken to me in
laudable terms. I asked him why he did not acquire
,aid work, and he ans,vered me with these words
,,hich became engraved in my memory: "I have not
Jought Larousse because in speaking of our race he
~xpressed himself in these words: 'it is an effeminate
'.'ace without virility or energy which has permitted
without any struggle the uprooting of its nationality,
JSages, customs, beliefs and even its language'. Un-
fortunately, this is true and, if you don't believe me,
iust look how we take shame even in using our own
iialects which many of our countrymen pretend not
to know. All the races, including the Kaffirs, have
their own type of beauty, but for us a type is only
beautiful when it approximates more or less that of
the Caucasian, and our women, thru bleaching creams
and make-up, like to appear more or less white, for-
getting that the beautiful color kayumangi has also its
)Wn charms for one who has no prejudices. I do not
~retend to say that all what we have is good, but we
1ave many things which, ,vith slight modifications,
::annot be imp1~oved upon."
To lament like an inspired poet before the ruins
)f Italic a without trying to look for the remedy was
::ontrary to the character of Rizal, and he revealed his
lndomitable energy and gigantic stature when he told
me: "I swear upon my honor that I will consecrate my
:?ntire life, my energies, my intelligence and even my
 6 PRICE OF FREEDOM

blood in order to make Larousse and his collaborators

change their opinion regarding us, and some day per-
haps my name will appear in their pages in a manner
I
that will do honor to our race."
Rizal, with his habitual high sense of proportion
and justice, told me without any false modesty that
Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera deserved to appear ahead of
him in the encyclopedias for his linguistic works, es-
pecially for his reform oI our alphabet with the re-
sulting improvement in our spelling.
I frankly confess to you that in spite of the great
admiration I already felt then for the Apostle of our
liberty, these manifestations gave me doubts, and J
even thought they were uttered by an exalted Quijo-
te; but we are all witnesses to the fact that scarcely
several years after those words were spoken, our peo-
ple, under the impulse of the ideas planted by Rizal,
demonstrated virility and energy, reconquering its lost
iiberty and defending it as long as possible against
one of the most powerful nations on earth.
Rizal was a Puritan, but his puritanism was rea-
sonable and without hypocrisies. Having recently ar-
rived in Brussels and not knowing French, I hardly
went out of the house. One day, he invited 1ne to amuse
ourselves, telling me that we could pass the time
in ihe house of two sisters whom he knew. There we
went and I came to like the amusement because a few
days later I asked him again when we could make an-
other visit, but he became serious and answered me
that he considered a good time as necessary once a
month but more than once he considered it already a
vice, and he was not willing to encourage vices.

~ Rs,,,, !~~~~ -- •
 THE NATIONAL SOUL-· 7

Rizal could not tolerate hypocrisy. He disdained

all persons who do not act in accordance with the prin-
ciples which they preach. He admired but did not res-
pect the great writer Leon Tolstoy. In his youth, the
latter led the frivolous life of the officers of the Rus-
sian Imperial Guard in which he served as one. During
his last years he wrote books and novels of socialistic
tendencies, advocating the subdivision and distribu-
tion of the vast poorly cultivated lands in Russia
among the peasants. He owned an extensive estate
called, if I remember right, Yasnaya Poliana. The
peasants who tilled its soil and heard of his ideas en-
treated him to cede his land to them. Taken by sur-
prise, Tolstoy asked for a few days to consider their
petition. After the lapse of the period, the farm labor-
ers returned to find out his decision. According to Ri-
zal, Tolstoy told them: "I am sorry to inform you that
now I have nothing and am as poor as you are." He
had transferred to his wife~s name his deeds of title.
Knowing that Rizal had been to the United States,
I asked him on one occasion: "What impressions do
you have of America?"
"America," he answered, "is the land par excell-
ence of freedom but only for the whites."
"Do not the liberation of the slaves and the found-
ing of the Liberian Republic, which is the first and
only Republic of colored people founded by whites,
prove the altruism of the Americans?" ,.,
"Apparently, so it seems, but if you get to the ·
bottom of it, it can be deduced that the liberation of
the slaves was the consequence and not the object of
the American Civil War, and that Liberia was founded
in order to attract Negros to return to Africa and there-
r. wm•• ~51·c.tc~
 8 PRICE OF FREEDOM • --

by solve in this manner a problem of vital interest to

the United States."
In Ghent we lived in a room paying so much for
our lodging and breakfast. Rizal asked me: "How
much would the room cost us without the breakfast?"
I talked to the landlady and she told me that she
would reduce the rent so much if without the break-
fast. Rizal made his calculations and concluded that
if we made our own breakfast we could save some-
thing. He bought tea, sugar, alcohol and a box of bis-
cuits. Upon arriving at the house, he opened the bis-
cuits and counted and divided them equally between
us. He told me that we owned so many biscuits each
and that, by dividing the number of biscuits by 30
days, we would have so many biscuits for each break-
fast. The first day, because of my personal pride, I
contented myself with my ration. And so with the
following day. But on the third day} I told him that
my ration was not enough for me. Then he answer-
ed: "You caI1 borrow from your ration for tomorrow.~'
Thru frequeni borrowing I ate up all my share in 15
days, while he rigorously limited himself to his daily
ration.
In Brussels we took our meals in a house and Ri-
zal on one occasion suggested that we eat pansit. We
were spending so much a day and so we spent one
day's appropriation for the purchase of the necessary
ingredients. It seems, however, that he committed an
error in his calculations this time for we spent two
days' appropriation and the pansit came out more than
what we intended to have. In order to remedy the
error we were compelled to have pansit for lunch and
supper for two days.
 THE NATIONAL SOUL • --

Another evidence of his will-power is the follow-

ing: He was addicted to pistol practice and every
month he allotted a certain sum for the purchase of
cartridges, figuring out beforehand _the number of
cartridges which he could spare daily. During all the
time that I lived with him, I never saw him fire a
single bullet in excess of what he had allotted for his
daily practice.
One of the anecdotes of his life which he related
laughing was this: When for the first time he return-
ed to the Philippines after graduating in medicine, his
townmates in Calamba swelled with pride in having
one who had studied medicine in Germany and they
called him the Doctor Aleman ( German doctor). The
peasants corrupted the word Aleman, converting it in-
to Uliman, and circulated among themseives stories of
miraculous cures effected by Dr. Uliman. One day,
he saw in front of the stairs of his house a peasant who
was hesitant and undecided whether to go up the stairs
or not in order to satisfy his curiosjty and see the re-
nowned Dr. Ullman, but his natural respectfulness and
courteousness held him back. Rizal, noticing the·
predicament of the peasant, asked him what he want-
ed. The latter a..,swered that he wanted to consult
Dr. Uliman. Rizal told him that he was not Uliman
and that he was merely nicknamed as such. The peas-
ant made the sign of the cross and said, "Susmariusep,
kayo po pala laang; marami pong salamat, huag na
po." (Jesus, Mary and Joseph, so you are only the one;
, never mind, many thanks.) He expected that Dr. Uli-
man would have a beard flowing down to his chest,
wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, and he could not
 10 PRICE OF FREEDOM

help but express his disillusionment upon seeing a

young man of his color and race.
He also related to me that the first time that he
returned to the country, he embarked in a steamer of
the Messageries Maritimes and because he spoke
Spanish, French, German, Italian and English and un-
derstood and could make himself understood more-
over in Dutch, he could talk with all the passengers.
In the third class, however, he saw a Filipina and, nat-
urally, he wanted to speak to her, but all his efforts
were in vain. This Filipina was a nurse-maid whom
a European family had engaged to take care of a child
during the trip and who, upon arriving in Marseille,
was shipped back home. She was a Visayan who did
not speak anything except her dialect ·which Rizal did
not understand.
In Berlin, when he was making the final touches
on the manuscript of his Noli, his pension failed on a
certain occasion to arrive on time, and inasmuch as in
that city he did not know anybody to whom to come
for help, he checked up how much he still had and
found out he had but few n1arks left. He laid aside
something for stamps and telegrams just in case of
necessity and allotted the balance for his meals dur-
ing the time which he estimated would pass before he
could receive an answer from a friend in Paris from
whom he had asked for a loan. The money which he
had on hand must have been very little because it was
enough only to buy the bread he would need while
waiting for the funds that he was expecting to receive.
Consequently, he had to resign himself to a ration of
bread and water for several days. He was very bun·
. 1·tY and
gry, but he wanted to keep up his personal d1gn
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Unedited postal card of Rizal to Don Pedrc A. Paterno

written in Chabacano
 THE NATIONAL SOUL 11

that of his race to the extent of concealing even to his

landlady his precarious situation. In the rent of his
room only breakfast was included. In order to make
it appear that he was eating, he left the house during
the usual time for lunch and dinner. "You cannot
imagine," he told me, "how much I suffered walking
along the streets smelling the pleasant odor of the
victuals that were being prepared in the kitchens,
which in Berlin and other cities in the north, were
usually situated in the basements and received their
light and ventilation through the openings in the side-
walks. The odor of the cooked dishes emanated from
the kitchens thru -these openings. Also, the palatable
foods which were exhibited in the show windows of
the food stores contributed to make my hunger more
acute."
Later on, during the war against America, when
I was in the mow1tains reduced to eating tubers and
shoots of wild palms, I had occasion to confirm the
sufferings which Rizal in his hunger must have felt
upon smelling and seeing palatable dishes. I was ly-
ing dov-711 in my hammock, and in order to have some-
thing with which to entertain myself, I told my ser-
vant to look in the knapsack for some old newspapers.
He brought me a rumpled piece which was used to
wrap my only other clothes. Unfortunately, the only
part remaining of the newspaper was the portion con-
taining the advertisements and among which was one
of a grocery store which carried a list of the most ap-
petizing foods. l\1y hunger increased and I had to
close my eyes. Rizal's sufferings must have been
greater because he suffered through both smell and
sight while I suffered only through sight.
 2 PRICE OF FREEDOM

When Blumentritt began to publish his first writ-

ngs about the Philippines, he was inclined to believe
n the beneficial works of the friars for the country
lue to the fact, undoubtedly, that he had until then
tever had any occasion to read anything but the writ-
ngs of the friars .o r of persons who were fond of them.
serious and long polemic took place between Rizal
nd Blumentritt by correspondence, and, finally, Ri-
.al, with his exalted pen of a patriot and, above all, his
rrefutable logic placed at the service of truth and
u.stice, succeeded in making Blumentritt change his
aanner of thinking. Rizal told me: "The most diffi-
ult and most serious polemic that I have ever sustain-
d and will perhaps sustain in the future, was that
~hich I had with Blumentritt because of his scientific
nowledge and culture, and to me it is a title of glory
f which I am most proud to have been able to con-
ince this sincere and disinterested orientalist and
hereby conved him into the most determined defend-
r of our race and aspirations that we have ever had."
When the Spanish colony in Madrid decided to
lect a president there were two candidates: Rizal and
1arcelo H. del Pilar. Rizal announced beforehand
tiat he would not accept the presidency if he did not
btain at least two-thirds of the votes. Both candidates
ad their respective enthusiastic and determined fol-
)wers. Dw·ing the election there were heated dis-
utes and even personal encounters. Rizal, even
1ough he was elected legally by roll call voting, re-
ounced the position, giving as a reason that his chair-
1anship might provoke animosity among Filipinos;
1at he did not want to be the cause of the split; and
mt for the sake of union he would leave the field to
 THE NATIONkL -SOUL H

Marcelo H. del Pilar, announcing that he would leave

for Paris, which he finally did.
With respect to the supposed retraction of Rizal
repudiating Freemasonry and returning to the Cath•
olic religion, my personal opinion is expressed in the
following letter which I wrote to the President of thE
Hongkong Committee from Yokohama on March 6
1897:*

"The President
Hongkong Committee
My dear friend:
* * * The reading of the last thought of our regrette<
Dr. Rizal caused me profound emotion. How truly grea
was that man! It seems that the Spaniards wantec
to persecute him down to his grave because they calum
niate him, attributing to him confessions and retrac
tions which he was not capable of making. This is no
the time for polemics and it is bett':!r for us to remai1
sileni and to try only to carry out what that great pa
triot failed to accomplish because of the shortness of hi
life * * *."

The greatest mark of glory of Rizal which make

him deserve our eternal gratitude is the disinterest
edness and self-denial which he demonstrated in sub
ordinating his private interests and those of his famil:
to those of his country. When, upon obtaining his de
gree of Master of Philosophy and Letters and Docto
of Medicine a brilliant future opened up before hirr
he did not hesitate to sign his own death sentence b
writing and publishing his Noli Me Tangere. He di
• The copy of this letter :ind of others which I will cite hereafter are fow
in the National Library which keeps the facsimile copies of the originals. The
letters are published with the permission of the National Library to who1
particularly Mr. Teodoro M. Kalaw, I express my thanks for the help the
extended to me, furnishing me all the necessary documents in order to ma!
more comprehensive this short work.
 14 PRICE OF FREEDOl\1

not even stop to consider the sad prospect of ch~ating

his family of the just hopes which it p~nned o~ him or
the certainty that he would reduce it to r1:11ns and
misery. Instead, he obeyed nothing but the impulses
of his noble and generous heart which dictated to him
the duty of liberating his people from the slavery to
which they were chained.
What benefits can we get from these teachings
of Rizal? It is evident that not all of us can pretend to
be reformers of our people, but we can practice the
preachings which that great apostle died for, reducing
our efforts for the upliftment of our own selves in ac-
cordance with the ideals of Rizal. When politicians
practice self-denial in order to consider nothing but
the general welfare of the country; when judges make
their decisions according to the dictates of iheir con-
science, without taking into account outside influences;
when a lawyer takes for his sacred mission the
defense of truth and justice; when a physician unites
to his private interests the welfare of humanity; when
a farmer tries his best to get from the land the max-
imum produce possible; when a merchant or an in-
dustrial magnate takes for his motto the prosperity of
his country; when a student studies not only in order
to come out with flying colors in the examinations but
also to be able to investigate the secrets of science in
order to place them at the service of his country; then
undoubtedly we will have complied with the doctrines
preached and practiced by Rizal and will have laid the
solid foundations of a strong nationalist feeling which
no power on earth can destroy.