Don't ever cease working for the prosperity and welfare of our native land.

203. Rizal's "My Last Farewell."-The night before Rizal was to be shot on the Luneta in Manila, he prepared a poem which has become famous. It is entitled in Spanish “Mi Uitimo Adios" (My Last Farewell), and should be familiar to every Filipino. This great poem, as translated into English, follows:2

MY LAST FAREWELL

Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caress'd,
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!

Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest,
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost.

On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not-cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom's plight,
'Tis ever the same, to serve our home and country's need.

I die just when I see the dawn break,

Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is iacking my blood thou shalt take,
Pour'd cut at need for thy dear sake,

To dye with its crimson the waking ray.

My dreams, when life first opened to me,

My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy lov'd face, O gem of the Orient sea,
This translation was made by Charles Derbyshire.

From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eye.

Dream of my life, my living and burning desire,
All hail! cries the scul that is now to take flight;
All hail! And sweet it is for thee to expire;
To die for thy sake, that thou mayst aspire;
And sleep in thy bosom eternity's long night.

If over my grave some day thou seest grow,
In the grassy sod, a humble flower,
Draw it to thy lips and kiss my soul so,

While I may feel on my brow in the cold tomb below
The touch of thy tenderness, thy breath's warm power.

Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,

Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes,
Let the wind with sad lament over me keen;
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill there its hymn of peace to my ashes.

Let the sun draw the vapors up to the sky,
And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest;
Let some kind soul o'er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From thee, O my country, that in God I may rest.

Pray for all those that hapless have died,
For all who have suffered the unmeasur'd pain;
For our mothers that bitterly their woes have cried,
For widows and orphans, for captives by torture tried;
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.

And when the dark night wraps the graveyard around, With only the dead in their vigil to see;

Break not my repose or the mystery profound,

And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound;

'Tis I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.

Whenever my grave is remembered no more,
Unmark'd by never a cross nor a stone;

Let the plow sweep through it, the spade turn it o'er,
That my ashes may carpet thy earthly floor,
Before into nothingness at last they are blown.

Then will oblivion bring to me no care,
As over thy vales and plains I sweep;

Throbbing and cleansed in thy space and air,
With color and light, with song and lament I fare,

Ever repeating the faith that I keep.

My Fatherland ador'd, that sadness to my sorrow lends,
Beloved Filipinos, hear now my last good-by!

I give thee all: parents and kindred and friends;

For I go where no slave before the oppressor bends,
Where faith can never kill, and God reigns e'er on high!

Farewell to you all, from my soul torn away.

Friends of my childhood in the home dispossessed!
Give thanks that I rest from the wearisome day!
Farewell to thee, too, sweet friend that lightened my way;
Beloved creatures all, farewell! In death there is rest!

204. Apolinario Mabini.-Apolinario Mabini was born in Talaga, Batangas, on July 22, 1864. His parents were so poor that he had to acquire an education mostly by his own efforts. He was also handicapped by his weak physical condition. When the Filipino Revolution was started, he became interested, and later was

the chief adviser of General Aguinaldo, the President of the Revolutionary Government. Some of the names given to Mabini were "the brains of the revolution" and the "sublime paralytic." In December, 1899, he was captured by the American army and deported to Guam, where he remained two years. He died soon after his return to

the Philippines.

Well-informed persons have stated that Mabini was one of the ablest Filipinos who ever lived. His advice to General Aguinaldo was sound; the state papers which he prepared were notable; and his ideas always showed an excellent mind. It is noteworthy that even in those early days Mabini studied English, and favored English as the official language of the Philippines.

Mabini had a courageous conception of civil liberty and of government. He once said:

Many talk of liberty without understanding it; many believe that if they have liberty they have complete freedom to do the bad and good alike. Liberty is freedom to do right and never wrong; it is ever guided by reason and the upright and honorable conscience of the individual. The robber is not free, but is the slave of his own passions, and when we put him in prison we punish him precisely because he is unwilling to use true freedom. Liberty does not mean that we shall obey nobody, but commends us to obey those whom we have put in power and acknowledged as the most fit to guide us, since in this way we obey our own reason.

205. Mabini's Decalogue.-Both Bonifacio and Mabini are the authors of decalogues, or ethical codes, which should be familiar to all Filipinos. Mabini's "True Decalogue" reads as follows: