ds, 'To him who does not ask, nothing is given.' "

"Quite the reverse," replied the lawyer with a sarcastic smile;
"with the government exactly the reverse occurs--"

But he suddenly checked himself, as if he had said too much and
wished to correct his imprudence. "The government has given us things
that we have not asked for, and that we could not ask for, because
to ask--to ask, presupposes that it is in some way incompetent and
consequently is not performing its functions. To suggest to it a course
of action, to try to guide it, when not really antagonizing it, is to
presuppose that it is capable of erring, and as I have already said
to you such suppositions are menaces to the existence of colonial
governments. The common crowd overlooks this and the young men who
set to work thoughtlessly do not know, do not comprehend, do not try
to comprehend the counter-effect of asking, the menace to order there
is in that idea--"

"Pardon me," interrupted Isagani, offended by the arguments the jurist
was using with him, "but when by legal methods people ask a government
for something, it is because they think it good and disposed to grant a
blessing, and such action, instead of irritating it, should flatter it
--to the mother one appeals, never to the stepmother. The government,
in my humble opinion, is not an omniscient being that can see and
anticipate everything, and even if it could, it ought not to feel
offended, for here you have the church itself doing nothing but asking
and begging of God, who sees and knows everything, and you yourself
ask and demand many things in the courts of this same government,
yet neither God nor the courts have yet taken offense. Every one
realizes that the government, being the human institution that it is,
needs the support of all the people, it needs to be made to see and
feel the reality of things. You yourself are not convinced of the
truth of your objection, you yourself know that it is a tyrannical
and despotic government which, in order to make a display of force
and independence, denies everything through fear or distrust, and
that the tyrannized and enslaved peoples are the only ones whose duty
it is never to ask for anything. A people that hates its government
ought to ask for nothing but that it abdicate its power."

The old lawyer grimaced and shook his head from side to side, in sign
of discontent, while he rubbed his hand over his bald pate and said
in a tone of condescendin