The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER L 232
her. One day she disappeared, and it was in vain that I sought everywhere, in vain I made inquiries about her.
About six months afterwards I learned that about that time, after a flood on the lake, there had been found in
some rice fields bordering on the beach at Kalamba, the corpse of a young woman who had been either
drowned or murdered, for she had had, so they said, a knife sticking in her breast. The officials of that town
published the fact in the country round about, but no one came to claim the body, no young woman apparently
had disappeared. From the description they gave me afterward of her dress, her ornaments, the beauty of her
countenance, and her abundant hair, I recognized in her my poor sister.
"Since then I have wandered from province to province. My reputation and my history are in the mouths of
many. They attribute great deeds to me, sometimes calumniating me, but I pay little attention to men, keeping
ever on my way. Such in brief is my story, a story of one of the judgments of men."
Elias fell silent as he rowed along.
"I still believe that you are not wrong," murmured Crisostomo in a low voice, "when you say that justice
should seek to do good by rewarding virtue and educating the criminals. Only, it's impossible, Utopian! And
where could be secured so much money, so many new employees?"
"For what, then, are the priests who proclaim their mission of peace and charity? Is it more meritorious to
moisten the head of a child with water, to give it salt to eat, than to awake in the benighted conscience of a
criminal that spark which God has granted to every man to light him to his welfare? Is it more humane to
accompany a criminal to the scaffold than to lead him along the difficult path from vice to virtue? Don't they
also pay spies, executioners, civil-guards? These things, besides being dirty, also cost money."
"My friend, neither you nor I, although we may wish it, can accomplish this."
"Alone, it is true, we are nothing, but take up the cause of the people, unite yourself with the people, be not
heedless of their cries, set an example to the rest, spread the idea of what is called a fatherland!"
"What the people ask for is impossible. We must wait."
"Wait! To wait means to suffer!"
"If I should ask for it, the powers that be would laugh at me."
"But if the people supported you?"
"Never! I will never be the one to lead the multitude to get by force what the government does not think
proper to grant, no! If I should ever see that multitude armed I would place myself on the side of the
government, for in such a mob I should not see my countrymen. I desire the country's welfare, therefore I
would build a schoolhouse. I seek it by means of instruction, by progressive advancement; without light there
is no road."
"Neither is there liberty without strife!" answered Elias.
"The fact is that I don't want that liberty!"
"The fact is that without liberty there is no light," replied the pilot with warmth. "You say that you are only
slightly acquainted with your country, and I believe you. You don't see the struggle that is preparing, you don't
see the cloud on the horizon. The fight is beginning in the sphere of ideas, to descend later into the arena,
which will be dyed with blood. I hear the voice of God--woe unto them who would oppose it! For them
History has not been written!"