is incredible that so many should err, among whom we have said there
are a lot of serious and disinterested persons. Some act in bad faith,
through levity, through want of sound judgment, through limitation
in reasoning power, ignorance of the past, or other cause. Some repeat
what they have heard, without, examination or reflection; others speak
through pessimism or are impelled by that human characteristic which
paints as perfect everything that belongs to oneself and defective
whatever belongs to another. But it cannot be denied that there are
some who worship truth, or if not truth itself at least the semblance
thereof, which is truth in the mind of the crowd.

Examining well, then, all the scenes and all the men that we have
known from Childhood, and the life of our country, we believe that
indolence does exist there. The Filipinos, who can measure up with the
most active peoples in the world, will doubtless not repudiate this
admission, for it is true that there one works and struggles against
the climate, against nature and against men. But we must not take the
exception for the general rule, and should rather seek the good of our
country by stating what we believe to be true. We must confess that
indolence does actually and positively exist there; only that, instead
of holding it to be the cause of the backwardness and the trouble,
we regard it as the effect of the trouble and the backwardness,
by fostering the development of a lamentable predisposition.

Those who have as yet treated of indolence, with the exception of
Dr. Sancianco, have been content to deny or affirm it. We know of no
one who has studied its causes. Nevertheless, those who admit its
existence and exaggerate it more or less have not therefore failed
to advise remedies taken from here and there, from Java, from India,
from other English or Dutch colonies, like the quack who saw a fever