diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

and executive powers. Hence I favor a system that is preventive and at the sametime repressive?'In his perception, a society extolling freedom was founded on theprinciple of the absolute autonomy of man; it was anti-Christian and couldnot endure. In a musing defense of his conservatism, he appealed to "the ruleof Christ in society."Then shall peace come upon the earth when force is wedded to justice and justiceis tempered by mercy. But this can be achieved only with the ride of Christ insociety, when his precepts dictate the constitutions of states and the spirit of theCatholic religion gives life to their laws. Only in Jesus Christ do man and societyachieve perfection. He is the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega of truecivilization."The mystic tone of the passage, the use of Nocedal's battlecry andsacrosanct phrase, Pastels' gift of Santa's volumes (El liberalismo es pecadocould well have been one of them), and his encomium on this populardefender of Nocedal's ideas betray unmistakably where his politicalsympathies lay—in intransigent Integrism.CONCLUSIONBound by ties of personal friendship, Pastels, and Rizal spent hours anddays composing their letters. But they pushed the pen with much pain,representing as they did two intellectual currents at cross purposes with eachother. They stood each one at the opposite end of Spain's political spectrum,separated by widely divergent ideologies. Rizal, speaking for a colonized andoppressed people, advocated the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and thetenets of rationalism; while Pastels, personal witness to religious persecutionat the hands of liberals and anarchists, belonged to the strong Catholicreaction against the philosophical movements, which many a time weredirected at the Church's destruction and in fact the banishment of allorganized religion. The issues raised in the correspondence are seen today ina different light. But Pastels' letters must be read and understood in thecontext of the history of ideas in late 19th century Spain.225