How then, and in what way, was that active and enterprising infidel
native of ancient times converted into the lazy and indolent Christian,
as our contemporary writer's say?

We have already spoken of the more or less latent predisposition
which exists in the Philippines toward indolence, and which must
exist everywhere, in the whole world, in all men, because we all
hate work more or less, as it may be more or less hard, more or less
unproductive. The dolce far niente of the Italian, the rascarse la
barriga of the Spaniard, the supreme aspiration of the bourgeois to
live on his income in peace and tranquility, attest this.

What causes operated to awake this terrible predisposition from its
lethargy? How is it that the Filipino people, so fond of its customs
as to border on routine, has given up its ancient habits of work,
of trade, of navigation, etc., even to the extent of completely
forgetting its past?


III

A fatal combination of circumstances, some independent of the will
in spite of men's efforts, others the offspring of stupidity and
ignorance, others the inevitable corollaries of false principles, and
still others the result of more or less base passions has induced the
decline of labor, an evil which instead of being remedied by prudence,
mature reflection and recognition of the mistakes made, through
deplorable policy, through regret, table blindness and obstinacy,
has gone from bad to worse until it has reached the condition in
which we now see it. (14).