on system. For the pastor of a pueblo of
several hundred families to teach the children Spanish was an
impossibility. A few words or simple phrases might be learned, but
the lack of opportunity for constant or even frequent practice of
the language in general conversation would make their attainments in
it far below those of American grammar-school children in German in
cities where that has been a compulsory study. [142] As long as the
mission system isolated the pueblos from contact with the world at
large, it of necessity followed that the knowledge of Spanish would be
practically limited to such Indians as lived in Manila or the larger
towns, or learned it in the households of the Friars. Slavery with
its forced transplanting has been the only means by which large
masses of alien or lower races have been lifted into the circle
of European thought and endowed with a European language. If such a
result is secured in the future in any large measure for the Filipino,
it can be accomplished only by the translation of English or Spanish
literature into the Tagal and other languages, on a scale not less
generous than the work of the Friars in supplying the literature of
religious edification. This will be a work of not less than two or
three generations, and of a truly missionary devotion.

We have now surveyed in its general aspects the old regime in the
Philippines, and supplied the necessary material upon which to
base a judgment of this contribution of Spain to the advancement of
civilization. In this survey certain things stand out in contrast to
the conventional judgment of the Spanish colonial system. The conquest
was humane, and was effected by missionaries more than by warriors. The
sway of Spain was benevolent, although the administration was not
free from the taint of financial corruption. Neither the islands nor
their inhabitants were exploited. The colony in fact was a constant
charge upon the treasury of New Spain. The success of the enterprise
was not measured by the exports and imports, but by the number of
souls put in the way of salvation. The people received the benefits
of Christian civilization, as it was understood in Spain in the days
of that religious revival which we call the Catholic Reaction. This
Christianity imposed the faith and the observances of the mediaeval
church, but it did for the Philippine islanders who received it just
what it did for the Franks or Angles a thousand years earlier. It