Just a few days before his death, Hume, joking about begging for a delay from Charon, the Greek ferryman of Hades, said, “I thought I might say, Good Charon, I have been endeavoring to open the eyes of the people; have a little patience only till I have the pleasure of seeing the churches shut up, and the clergy sent about their business; but Charon would reply, ‘O, you loitering rogue; that won’t happen these two hundred years.’
Adam Gopnik, “Market Man,” The New Yorker, October 18, 2010