d reticent disposition would hardly have made
him a favorite among those who were enjoying the broader and gayer
life there. Moreover, he soon advanced far beyond them in thought by
realizing that they were beginning at the wrong end of the labor,
for even at that time he seems to have caught, by what must almost
be looked upon as an inspiration of genius, since there was nothing
apparent in his training that would have suggested it, the realization
of the fact that hope for his people lay in bettering their condition,
that any real benefit must begin with the benighted folk at home,
that the introduction of reforms for which they were unprepared would
be useless, even dangerous to them. This was not at all the popular
idea among his associates and led to serious disagreements with their
leaders, for it was the way of toil and sacrifice without any of the
excitement and glamour that came from drawing up magnificent plans
and sending them back home with appeals for funds to carry on the
propaganda--for the most part banquets and entertainments to Spain's
political leaders.

His views, as revealed in his purely political writings, may be
succinctly stated, for he had that faculty of expression which never
leaves any room for doubt as to the meaning. His people had a natural
right to grow and to develop, and any obstacles to such growth and
development were to be removed. He realized that the masses of his
countrymen were sunk deep in poverty and ignorance, cringing and
crouching before political authority, crawling and groveling before
religious superstition, but to him this was no subject for jest
or indifferent neglect--it was a serious condition which should be
ameliorated, and hope lay in working into the inert social mass the
leaven of conscious individual effort toward the development of a
distinctive, responsible personality. He was profoundly appreciative
of all the good that Spain had done, but saw in this no inconsistency
with the desire that this gratitude might be given cause to be ever
on the increase, thereby uniting the Philippines with the mother
country by the firm bonds of common ideas and interests, for his
earlier writings breathe nothing but admiration, respect, and loyalty
for Spain and her more advanced institutions. The issue was clear to
him and he tried to keep it so.

It was indeed administrative myopia, induced largely by blind greed,
which allowed the friar orders to confuse the objections t