By all accounts, this multiplex being could write as easily; he was poet and dramatist as well as sculptor and painter. At school he continued to practise the art his mother had taught him, showing himself a skilled practitioner in verse and a devout worshiper of poetry, Spanish and Tagalog. For, despite the common European belief to the contrary, Tagalog is not the dialect of a tribe of savages but a highly developed language having an ancient and honorable literature. There were poems in Tagalog as early as in English, and many a beautiful Tagalog poem has been sung and resung and passed into the heritage of the people where no European speech had ever been heard.

At the age when children usually begin to learn their alphabet this boy was making verses. A little later he could see subjects not only for poems but for plays. Before he was eight years old he had written a drama that was performed at a local festival and brought him two pesos. At the Ateneo, poetry and dramatic composition were his relaxation, his pastime, his joy and rapture, when he turned from the ponderous routine of the curriculum.

In December, 1875, he being then fifteen, he wrote “The Embarkation, a Hymn in Honor of Magellan’s Fleet,” a poem in seven stanzas of eight lines. The measure may be called anapestic dimeter, of which old Skelton was a master and in which Herrick occasionally performed, but rare thereafter in English poetry until Hood and Swinburne revived it. A few months later he appeared with a poem of nine stanzas arranged much after the manner of the Sicilian octave. [[64]]This was on “Education” and contained exquisite imagery, while it showed an unmistakable grasp of melodic resource.[5]

THE ATENEO DE MANILA

The school attended by Rizal in Manila where he won several prizes in literature

In ranging among all books, old and new, that seemed to promise any profit, he came upon one in these days at the Ateneo that helped mightily to direct his career, while it freshened his young hopes to a new bent concerning his people and what was to become of them. It was a Spanish translation of “Travels in the Philippines,”[6] by Dr. F. Jagor, the German naturalist. Something more than the flora and fauna of these fascinating Islands concerned Dr. Jagor; like so many other just and reflective visitors in those parts, he had been led to think much about the remarkable characteristics of the inhabitants and the singular misfortune that had befallen them. Unless all signs were deceptive, this was a race endowed for a career and a place in the world’s procession; of these it had been cheated by an outland despotism whose sole foundation stood upon force. In all probability this anomaly could not endure. Spain, still groping in the past, was no possible cicerone for a race that felt springing within it the strong man-child of nationality and progress. One thing, if none other, was at hand to insure the doom of such absurdity. Dr. Jagor had traveled in the United States and considered its profound influence upon other nations. Its life and growth were daily proofs before him of the eternal persistence of the democratic idea, and from that showing the world [[65]]could never turn away. He saw that the example of the United States had spurred all South America to revolt and eventually to win freedom; hence he concluded that the spread of this influence around the Pacific was inevitable.[7]

In proportion as the navigation of the west coast of America extends the influence of the American element over the South Sea [wrote this prophet], the captivating, magic power that the great republic exercises over the Spanish colonies will not fail to make itself also felt in the Philippines. The Americans are evidently destined to bring to a full development the germs originated by the Spaniards. Conquerors of modern times, they pursue their road to victory with the assistance of the pioneer’s ax and plow, representing an age of peace and commercial prosperity in contrast to that bygone and chivalrous age whose champions were upheld by the cross and protected by the sword.…

With regard to permanence, the Spanish system cannot for a moment be compared with that of America. While each of the Spanish colonies, in order to favor a privileged class by immediate gains, exhausted still more the already enfeebled populace of the metropolis by the withdrawal of the best of its ability, America, on the contrary, has attracted to itself from all countries the most energetic element, which, once on its soil and freed from all fetters, restlessly progressing, has extended its power and influence still farther and farther. The Philippines will escape the action of the two great neighboring powers [the United States and Great Britain] all the less for the fact that neither they [the Philippines] nor their metropolis find their condition of a stable and well-balanced nature.

[[66]]

These deliberated forecasts deeply impressed Rizal. They were written about 1874. Looking back now, the applause Jagor deserves for his keen vision is easy, but in 1874 or 1876 who hailed him as a prophet? If he found a disciple outside of the grim walls of the Ateneo the fact escaped record; but to Rizal the sequence seemed normal to his own reflections. He had an instinctive faith in the latent capacity of his people; now he noted that this cool-minded scientist came from judicial analysis of these same people to share the same belief. The next step was facile; he perceived the logical procession of Jagor’s reasonings about the rising American influence. It must be so, then, that America would prove to be light and leadership to the Far East, and from this time he turned to the United States as an example and a well-spring of hope.[8]