Note 4 — Chapter X · FILIPINO INDOLENCE

Examining well, then, all the scenes and all the men that we have known from childhood, and examining 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 in the Philippines one works and struggles against the climate, against nature, and against man. 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 troubles of the country, we regard it as the effect of the troubles and the backwardness, by the fostering of a lamentable predisposition.…4