Suppose I should be so driven against a man
That I decided not to acknowledge his good deeds
And his good qualities
And his accomplishments—
That knowing them,
I pretended as if they were not so now,
And never had been—
And suppose I should rail against him
For every sin I can perceive in him—
Or imagine—
And suppose I should decide not
To wish him well about anything—
And not even in repentance from his sins
And the reformation of his heart.
And suppose finally that I should be so driven
As to wish him tortured or dead
And blotted out from history itself
So as to punish him with the ignorance of
All the generations hence.
When you count this up
All together,
and weigh out its sum total—
Doesn’t this describe the hatred of some?
I think it’s interesting that one part of this
Consists of denying even
The truth about a man
When the truth doesn’t lend itself to
One’s ill will against him.
And this makes me wonder, then,
At how no honest person
Could be hateful like this.
