Dr Johnson number 2 - easier terms

 

I come back to one of my literary heroes again (and patron Saint of lexicographers, more or less), Dr Samuel Johnson.

Dr Johnson could hardly speak or write without being quotable. There are websites with hundreds of Dr Johnson quotes, and they are all good. The one today is less well-known than many of his quotes but I really like it.  There is something both resigned and humane about it:

As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly

There is a feeling when mortality starts to shuffle its feet and preen its wings that perhaps now is not the time to be precious about previous spats and vendettas. Oh, perhaps in Calabria they will see this thing through to the end, but really, are we going to do that?

So people who had once been consigned to the outer darkness ( or even the eternal flames) suddenly start to seem less bad. Maybe they will be allowed to come to your funeral. Because in the overall scheme of things, isn't it better to have one more mourner rather than being 'right'?

You could say that we "mellow", but I think that implies a slackening and softening which is not needed at all. We can, in a perfectly hard-nosed way, simply decide that we are going to set 'easier terms' for our judgements on humanity, and particularly on that friend who insists on picking arguments with you every time you post on social media.

There was one friend of Cro's who had been such an arse that I had promised to punch them if they did turn up at the funeral but then, a few months out from the event Cro remembered some uncalled-for and altruistic good that the friend had done and the terms were eased to the point that my fist would be unemployed.

It does not seem like weakness. It does not even seem like my mother's admonition to 'Judge not, lest that ye be judged'. It is simply an acknowledgement that we all make mistakes or have weaknesses and that in this leaky boat of life we should be careful that only the blackest evil will get you tossed over the side.

I'm with the good Doctor on this one.