The dead should be judged as we judge criminals, impartially, but they
should be allowed the benefit of a doubt. When no doubt exists they
should be hanged out of hand for about a hundred years. After that time
they may come down and move about under a cloud. After about 2000 years
they may do what they like. If Nero murdered his mother—well, he
murdered his mother and there’s an end. The moral guilt of an action
varies inversely as the squares of its distances in time and space,
social, psychological, physiological or topographical, from ourselves.
Not so its moral merit: this loses no lustre through time and distance.
Good is like gold, it will not rust or tarnish and it is rare, but there
is some of it everywhere. Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon
fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.