le," replied Isagani, "has always admonished me to think of
others as much as of myself. I didn't come for myself, I came in the
name of those who are in worse condition."

"What the devil! Let them do as you have done, let them singe their
eyebrows studying and come to be bald like myself, stuffing whole
paragraphs into their memories! I believe that if you talk Spanish it
is because you have studied it--you're not of Manila or of Spanish
parents! Then let them learn it as you have, and do as I have done:
I've been a servant to all the friars, I've prepared their chocolate,
and while with my right hand I stirred it, with the left I held a
grammar, I learned, and, thank God! have never needed other teachers
or academies or permits from the government. Believe me, he who wishes
to learn, learns and becomes wise!"

"But how many among those who wish to learn come to be what you
are? One in ten thousand, and more!"

"Pish! Why any more?" retorted the old man, shrugging his
shoulders. "There are too many lawyers now, many of them become mere
clerks. Doctors? They insult and abuse one another, and even kill
each other in competition for a patient. Laborers, sir, laborers,
are what we need, for agriculture!"

Isagani realized that he was losing time, but still could not forbear
replying: "Undoubtedly, there are many doctors and lawyers, but I won't
say there are too many, since we have towns that lack them entirely,
and if they do abound in quantity, perhaps they are deficient in
quality. Since the young men can't be prevented from studying, and
no other professions are open to us, why let them waste their time
and effort? And if the instruction, deficient as it is, does not keep
many from becoming lawyers and doctors, if we must finally have them,
why not have good ones? After all, even if the sole wish is to make
the country a country of farmers and laborers, and condemn in it all
intellectual activity, I don't see any evil in enlightening those
same farmers and laborers, in giving them at least an education that
will aid them in perfecting themselves and in perfecting their work,
in placing them in a condition to understand many things of which
they are at present ignorant."

"Bah, bah, bah!" exclaimed the lawyer, drawing circles in the air
with his hand to dispel the ideas suggested. "To be a good farmer no
great amount of rhetoric is needed. Dreams, illusions, fancies! Eh,
will you take a piece of advice?"

He ar