The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
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CHAPTER XXXI 149<br />
"Most honorable sir" Great affairs are great affairs even <strong>by</strong> the side of the small and the small are always<br />
small even <strong>by</strong> the side of the great. So History says, but since History hits the nail on the head only once in a<br />
hundred times, being a thing made <strong>by</strong> men, and men make mistakes--errarle es hominum, [89] as Cicero<br />
said--he who opens his mouth makes mistakes, as they say in my country then the result is that there are<br />
profound truths which History does not record. <strong>The</strong>se truths, most honorable sir, the divine Spirit spoke with<br />
that supreme wisdom which human intelligence has not comprehended since the times of Seneca and<br />
Aristotle, those wise priests of antiquity, even to our sinful days, and these truths are that not always are small<br />
affairs small, but that they are great, not <strong>by</strong> the side of the little things, but <strong>by</strong> the side of the grandest of the<br />
earth and of the heavens and of the air and of the clouds and of the waters and of space and of life and of<br />
death!"<br />
"Amen!" exclaimed the leader of the Tertiaries, crossing himself.<br />
With this figure of rhetoric, which he had learned from a famous preacher in Manila, Padre Damaso wished to<br />
startle his audience, and in fact his holy ghost was so fascinated with such great truths that it was necessary to<br />
kick him to remind him of his business.<br />
"Patent to your eyes--" prompted the holy ghost below.<br />
"Patent to your eyes is the conclusive and impressive proof of this eternal philosophical truth! Patent is that<br />
sun of virtue, and I say sun and not moon, for there is no great merit in the fact that the moon shines during<br />
the night,--in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king; <strong>by</strong> night may shine a light, a tiny star,--so the<br />
greatest merit is to be able to shine even in the middle of the day, as the sun does; so shines our brother Diego<br />
even in the midst of the greatest saints! Here you have patent to your eyes, in your impious disbelief, the<br />
masterpiece of the Highest for the confusion of the great of the earth, yes, my brethren, patent, patent to all,<br />
PATENT!"<br />
A man rose pale and trembling and hid himself in a confessional. He was a liquor dealer who had been dozing<br />
and dreaming that the carbineers were demanding the patent, or license, that he did not have. It may safely be<br />
affirmed that he did not come out from his hiding-place while the sermon lasted.<br />
"Humble and lowly saint, thy wooden cross" (the one that the image held was of silver), "thy modest gown,<br />
honors the great Francis whose sons and imitators we are. We propagate thy holy race in the whole world, in<br />
the remote places, in the cities, in the towns, without distinction between black and white" (the alcalde held<br />
his breath), "suffering hardships and martyrdoms, thy holy race of faith and religion militant" ("Ah!" breathed<br />
the alcalde) "which holds the world in balance and prevents it from falling into the depths of perdition."<br />
His hearers, including even Capitan Tiago, yawned little <strong>by</strong> little. Maria Clara was not listening to the sermon,<br />
for she knew that Ibarra was near and was thinking about him while she fanned herself and gazed at an<br />
evangelical bull that had all the outlines of a small carabao.<br />
"All should know <strong>by</strong> heart the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints and then I should not have to preach<br />
to you, O sinners! You should know such important and necessary things as the Lord's Prayer, although many<br />
of you have forgotten it, living now as do the Protestants or heretics, who, like the Chinese, respect not the<br />
ministers of God. But the worse for you, O ye accursed, moving as you are toward damnation!"<br />
"Abá, Pale Lamaso, what!" [90] muttered Carlos, the Chinese, looking angrily at the preacher, who continued<br />
to extemporize, emitting a series of apostrophes and imprecations.<br />
"You will die in final unrepentance, O race of heretics! God punishes you even on this earth with jails and<br />
prisons! Women should flee from you, the rulers should hang all of you so that the seed of Satan be not<br />
multiplied in the vineyard of the Lord! Jesus Christ said: 'If you have an evil member that leads you to sin, cut