Absence and The Critical Tongue

Northern Advocate, 10 February 1940, Page 8

Absence and The Critical Tongue

Observations By “The Man On The Lookout”

Cn the other hand, refer to a dead man as though he yet alive, and you will in all probability hear a tirade of criticism not .at all creditable to the deceased. Why should this be? I have never been able to understand it. I think the old Latin maxim, “speak nothing but good of the dead,” has been prostituted in a way that was never dreamed of by its coiner. Yl/HY should we speak only good * * of the dead, and say as much ill as we feel disposed to, about the living? There comes to my mind, as I write, a statement in Jeffrey Farnoi's “Broad Highway” which, despite its futility, probably provides the key to the reluctance of the living to speak ill of the dead. Mind you, I don’t advocate speaking ill of either the living or the dead if it can be avoided, although I do hold that if either is to be the subject of cruel criticism the dead is better able to bear it than the living. But, to revert to “The Broad Highway.” An interesting character, an ancient man, was asked who was the oldest man in the district. He replied that he was —with the exception of his brother, who w,as recently dead. When it was pointed out to him that in those circumstances he really was the oldest, he replied naively that such a claim would not be fair to the dead man, who had always taken great pride in the fact that he was the oldest inhabitant. ♦ • * <r MY readers may. or may not, regard A this quotation as revealing why it

is that the dead should be put before the living. I wonder. However, 1 set out to show that the disappearance of an individual from his accustomed place for a long or a longer period is a matter of no consequence to the average person. a case ca'me to my mind as I write. A man who always declared th,at a certain workman was the mainstay of the iirm by which he was employed, and who said that he could always pick any article made by that workman, called to see him one morning. Great was his surprise to learn that the man had been away from the shop tor something like a year! This provides all the material needed to appraise the value of his opinion. * * * JJUT that is by the way. It really has nothing to do with my contention that the injunction to speak nothing but good of the dead is very, often a bad thing? If it had not been lor the reluctance to recount a dead one’s failings, many a tragic death might have been made the subject of a useful and important moral lesson. I refer particularly to cases in which intemperance or other excess has brougnt a promising man or woman to a tragic end. If he or she had been prevented, say, at the eleventh hour, lrom committing suicide or doing something which would not have been done in a normal state of mind, the incident would probably have been made the subject of widespread discussion and held up as a warning to the young, but the passing hence -of the unfortunate has at once raised a protecting barrier. “You must not say anything derogatory of the dead,’’ is the whispered advice, and so another sad object lesson is wasted. * 4 * TyHY should this be? Again I say r I have never been able to understand it especially in view of the avidity with which the faults of the living are seized upon and magnified. Do not speak ill of the dead, but, more than that, do not speak ill of the living. Its not worth while, despite the provocation which is too often offered.