diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Hence, Noli me tangere can be included among the great literary worksof Philippine-Spanish literature. As W. E. Retana after his conversion to themore authentic values of the Filipino people wrote:If instead of having belonged to Spain the Philippines had belonged to Holland,for example, there would have been perhaps no revolution, but much less theautochthonous government it now enjoys . . . . This anxiety for emancipationbeating in the Filipino heart is nothing but a case of metempsychosis. Spain failedto plant a liberal regime, it is true. But it is no less true that she taught Rizal thatone does not beg for freedom. It must be won. Spain, with all her serious failings,effected in the Philippines what no other nation could haveolone: touch the soul,remould the spirits of the conqueror and the conquered.'33Marginally to everything that has been said, there is another reasonwhich explains the success and transcendence of Rizal's novel. Noli metangere appeared at the opportune moment when the public needed it. If it istrue that the "best books are those which tell us what we already Icnow,"134Noli had an impact, enthused its readers—also embarrassed and exasperatedthem—because it was saying what the Filipinos already knew but wereincapable or inhibited from saying it. It was the voice for the voiceless, theaccusation by those who no longer had the strength to complain, the whipwhich "hacked the face" of the oppressors, the cry of freedom of an entirepeople. For this, and much more, Noli me tangere will always be a novel ofactuality.112