Noli Me Tangere

Dedication
To My Country
In the catalog of human ills there is to be found a cancer so malignant that the least touch inflames it and causes agonizing pains; afflicted with such a cancer, a social cancer, has your dear image appeared to me, when, for my own heart’s ease or to compare you with others, I have sought, in the centers of modern civilization, to call you to mind.

Now, desirous of your welfare, which is also ours, and seeking the best cure for your ills, I shall do with you what was done in ages past with the sick, who were exposed on the steps of the temple so that the worshippers, having invoked the god, should each propose a remedy.

To this end, I shall endeavor to show your condition, faithfully and ruthlessly. I shall lift a corner of the veil which shrouds the disease sacrificing to the truth everything even self-love—for, as your son, your defects and weaknesses are also mine.

The Author,

Europe, 1886

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Rizal was eleven at the time; his elder and only brother, a protegé of one of the executed priests, feared he would be implicated in the alleged conspiracy and prudently went home to the provinces.