diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

secular rulers of the Filipinos when one of those sub-human indios dared tocriticize the living conditions in the Islands:Is it possible? An indio, a brute, an animal, a creature, an ape—to dare talk ill ofthe institutions of this country, an indio to dare make critical observationsreproaching the friars and the civil servants for their official or moralmisconduct! . . . If an indio is labelled impudent when he dares criticize theinstitutions of a superior race, what must he become when he goes a step further!The rabble must be after him, all the firm believers in the superiority of the whiteand the inferiority of the Malayan .... 14Again Blumentritt resorts to analysis in order to explain this attitude ofcivilized and cultured European nation with a long and proud history. Hecites the fact that with the exception of Portugal, no other European nationhas led so isolated an intellectual life as Spain. She has lived happily withinherself, the center of the world or, better still, the whole world itself. OnlyFrance has influenced Spain a little. The Spanish nation has grown up in thetradition that she has been not only the greatest world power but hascontinued to be, even at the time when nearly all of her Latin Americapossessions had been lost and the total decline of the Spanish empire wouldtake place within a decade. From childhood the Spaniards have been taughtthat their noble and valiant nation was superior to all foreign nations. Todaythe saying, "proud as a Spaniard" ("Stolz wie ein Spanier," in Blumentritt'snative language) is still current. Such conceit which the Austrian scholarconsiders a national weakness must inevitably lead to xenophobia, mistrustand disdain even of the English, French, German, Dutch, and other Europeannationalities. How much more the Filipino native, the indio? Rizal shouldhave guessed, his friend concludes, that being the work of an indio, his Nollwould meet with a host of enemies, even if he did not touch on theologicalmatters.It might be tempting to conclude that the answer to Spanish arroganceand contempt for the indio should have been for Rizal to adopt the sameattitude towards the Spaniard, that he should have professed anti-Spanishsentiments as a kind of vengeance. Blumentritt passionately refutes thisassumption. Rizal, the liberal cosmopolitan, was an admirer of Spain'scultural heritage and abhorred hatred and enmity because of religion or race:All the wise men and writers of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy who knowRizal personally, as well as his numerous Spanish and Filipino friends, and Imyself, know that he harbours not a single spark of hatred in his heart for Spain.He loves what is noble and brave in the Spaniard, as he hates and despises the237