The essays in this volume appear to be of unrelated topics randomly brought together, but they are all about aspects of Philippine colonial society, ranging from our pre-Hispanic usages to an unusual experience of our national hero while in exile in Dapitan, or the utopian dream we never realized. These essays are offered here simply to bring history out of the classroom and to give them a permanent and easily accessible form. Knowledge of history, an exclusive privilege of the human spirit, inevitably ennobles the mind. . . . [U]nless we are aware of what has gone before, we will not be in a position to know who we are or plan our future.
