by José Rizal
AUTHOR'S DEDICATION
To My Fatherland:
Recorded in the history of human sufferings is a cancer of so malignanta character that the least touch irritates it and awakens in it thesharpest pains. Thus, how many times, when in the midst of moderncivilizations I have wished to call thee before me, now to accompanyme in memories, now to compare thee with other countries, hath thydear image presented itself showing a social cancer like to that other!
Desiring thy welfare, which is our own, and seeking the best treatment,I will do with thee what the ancients did with their sick, exposingthem on the steps of the temple so that every one who came to invokethe Divinity might offer them a remedy.
And to this end, I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully,without discriminations; I will raise a part of the veil that coversthe evil, sacrificing to truth everything, even vanity itself, since,as thy son, I am conscious that I also suffer from thy defects andweaknesses.
THE AUTHOR
EUROPE, 1886
THE SOCIAL CANCER