MAN OF GENIUS.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15998, 28 May 1924, Page 15

MAN OF GENIUS.

WHO NEVER WASTED A MINUTE. Probably not one in ten thousand of the inhabitants of Mew Zealand has ever heard of Jose Rizal. Yet to judge by the bare record of his achievements as recorded in the Dai'.y Chronicle he was a universal genius, and one of the most extraordinary human products of the second half of the last century. But to the arrogant Spanish rulers of the Philippines he was merely a vulgar halfbreed, for Rizal was of mixed Chinese and Malay descent. The story of his amazing career is told in the "Hero of the Filipinos," by Charles E. Russell.and E. B. Rodriquez. Before Jose was three years old. he had mastered the alphabet; at five he could read Spanish, in addition to his mother tongue. At the same age he bad learned to carve in wood, to model in clay, and to draw. After learning everything that Manila University could teach him he was smug_ glad out of the islands and went to the University of Madrid, where he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thence he went to Paris, Berlin, and Vienna for more study. Unlimited Mentality. It is said by his biographers that to the capacity of Rizal's mind there was no limit; be could comprehend any subject, learn any craft, acquire any language or science. Before lie was thirty he was able to write and speak the following languages, many of them colliquially: —Tagalong, Spanish, Orce*., Latin, French, Italian, English, German, Portugese, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, -Catalan. lie was one of the greatest of ophthamologisls of his lime, and ins knowledge of ethnology, anthropology and biology and 1 zoology was recognised by the greatest authorities in Europe. Rizal wrole two novels, a blistering exposure of the Spanish misrule.. His poems even in translation, show inspiration. Perhaps the most touching of them was written the night before his execution by the Spaniards in 1596, when Rizal was thirty-six. His, drawings, some examples of which are given in- the book, are exquisite in their delicacy. His sculpture rather suggests Epstein, original in design, and beautifully modelled; a reproduction of the portrait in oils of Razil's sister shows unmistakeablly the baud of a master. /'".' Razit was known to his friends as one who treasured time as others treasured; gold, the man who, ncvor wasted a' minute. By the Filipinos he is "regarded as the liberpior of his country,"i'now under American proLection, and the inspiration of'it's national Life" A niagniliceiit monument stands OH .'.the spot where he was killed, aiirf,: ; fhere is scarcely a town in: the Philippines ''Without its statue or bust....:.'' ".: