from different parts of the islands, and by their association there
in a foreign land were learning to forget their narrow sectionalism;
hence the way was being prepared for some concerted action. Thus,
aided and encouraged by the anti-clerical Spaniards in the mother
country, there was growing up a new generation of native leaders,
who looked toward something better than the old system.

It is with this period in the history of the country--the author's
boyhood--that the story of Noli Me Tangere deals. Typical scenes
and characters are sketched from life with wonderful accuracy,
and the picture presented is that of a master-mind, who knew and
loved his subject. Terror and repression were the order of the day,
with ever a growing unrest in the higher circles, while the native
population at large seemed to be completely cowed--"brutalized"
is the term repeatedly used by Rizal in his political essays. Spanish
writers of the period, observing only the superficial movements,--
some of which were indeed fantastical enough, for


"they,
Who in oppression's darkness caved have dwelt,
They are not eagles, nourished with the day;
What marvel, then, at times, if they mistake their way?"



--and not heeding the currents at work below, take great delight
in ridiculing the pretensions of the young men seeking advancement,
while they indulge in coarse ribaldry over the wretched condition
of the great mass of the "Indians." The author, however, himself a