To the Philippine Youth
The subject of Doctor Rizal's first prize-winning poem was The
Philippine Youth, and its theme was "Growth." The study of the growth
of free ideas, as illustrated in this book of his lineage, life and
labors, may therefore fittingly be dedicated to the "fair hope of
the fatherland."
Except in the case of some few men of great genius, those who are
accustomed to absolutism cannot comprehend democracy. Therefore our
nation is relying on its young men and young women; on the rising,
instructed generation, for the secure establishment of popular
self-government in the Philippines. This was Rizal's own idea, for
he said, through the old philosopher in "Noli me Tangere," that he
was not writing for his own generation but for a coming, instructed
generation that would understand his hidden meaning.
Your public school education gives you the democratic view-point,
which the genius of Rizal gave him; in the fifty-five volumes of
the Blair-Robertson translation of Philippine historical material
there is available today more about your country's past than the
entire contents of the British Museum afforded him; and you have the
guidance in the new paths that Rizal struck out, of the life of a
hero who, farsightedly or providentially, as you may later decide,
was the forerunner of the present regime.
But you will do as he would have done, neither accept anything because
it is written, nor reject it because it does not fall in with your
prejudices--study out the truth for yourselves.
