s well-to-do, so he was sent at the age of eight to study
in the new Jesuit school in Manila, not however before he had already
inspired some awe in his simple neighbors by the facility with which
he composed verses in his native tongue.

He began his studies in a private house while waiting for an
opportunity to enter the Ateneo, as the Jesuit school is called,
and while there he saw one of his tutors, Padre Burgos, haled to
an ignominious death on the garrote as a result of the affair of
1872. This made a deep impression on his childish mind and, in fact,
seems to have been one of the principal factors in molding his ideas
and shaping his career. That the effect upon him was lasting and that
his later judgment confirmed him in the belief that a great injustice
had been done, are shown by the fact that his second important work,
_El Filibusterismo_, written about 1891, and miscalled by himself a
"novel," for it is really a series of word-paintings constituting a
terrific arraignment of the whole regime, was dedicated to the three
priests executed in 1872, in these words: "Religion, in refusing
to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime imputed to you; the
government, in surrounding your case with mystery and shadow, gives
reason for belief in some error, committed in fatal moments; and all
the Philippines, in venerating your memory and calling you martyrs,
in no way acknowledges your guilt." The only answer he ever received
to this was eight Remington bullets fired into his back.

In the Ateneo he quickly attracted attention and became a general
favorite by his application to his studies, the poetic fervor with
which he entered into all the exercises of religious devotion, and
the gentleness of his character. He was from the first considered
"peculiar," for so the common mind regards everything that fails to fit
the old formulas, being of a rather dreamy and reticent disposition,
more inclined to reading Spanish romances than joining in the games of
his schoolmates. And of all the literatures that could be placed in
the hands of an imaginative child, what one would be more productive
in a receptive mind of a fervid love of life and home and country and
all that men hold dear, than that of the musical language of Castile,
with its high coloring and passionate character?

His activities were varied, for, in addition to his regular studies,
he demonstrated considerable skill in wood-carving and wax-modeling,
and dur