successor. [9]

Returning to Europe, he spent some time in London preparing an edition
of Morga's _Sucesos de las Filipinas_, a work published in Mexico
about 1606 by the principal actor in some of the most stirring scenes
of the formative period of the Philippine government. It is a record
of prime importance in Philippine history, and the resuscitation of
it was no small service to the country. Rizal added notes tending to
show that the Filipinos had been possessed of considerable culture and
civilization before the Spanish conquest, and he even intimated that
they had retrograded rather than advanced under Spanish tutelage. But
such an extreme view must be ascribed to patriotic ardor, for Rizal
himself, though possessed of that intangible quality commonly known
as genius and partly trained in northern Europe, is still in his own
personality the strongest refutation of such a contention.

Later, in Ghent, he published _El Filibusterismo_, called by him a
continuation of _Noli Me Tangere_, but with which it really has no
more connection than that some of the characters reappear and are
disposed of. [10] There is almost no connected plot in it and hardly
any action, but there is the same incisive character-drawing and
clear etching of conditions that characterize the earlier work. It
is a maturer effort and a more forceful political argument, hence
it lacks the charm and simplicity which assign _Noli Me Tangere_
to a preeminent place in Philippine literature. The light satire
of the earlier work is replaced by bitter sarcasm delivered with
deliberate intent, for the iron had evidently entered his soul with
broadening experience and the realization that justice at the hands
of decadent Spain had been an iridescent dream of his youth. Nor had
the Spanish authorities in the Philippines been idle; his relatives
had been subjected to all the annoyances and irritations of petty
persecution, eventually losing the greater part of their property,
while some of them suffered deportation.

In 1891 he returned to Hongkong to practise medicine, in which
profession he had remarkable success, even coming to be looked
upon as a wizard by his simple countrymen, among whom circulated
wonderful accounts of his magical powers. He was especially skilled
in ophthalmology, and his first operation after returning from his
studies in Europe was to restore his mother's sight by removing a
cataract from one of her eyes, an achievement which