YOU know, not least, but most, as to yourself being guilty or
innocent. Wherefore, if you have anything to show or set forth
whereby you may be relieved from the burden of these accusations,
now is the time. Be no longer silent; but, whether through the
Oracle of the Dead, or the Oracle of Branchidae, or that in Delphi,
or Dodona, or of Amphiaraus at Oropus, speak to your friends and
lovers (whereof I am one from of old) and let men know the very
truth.

Now, concerning the priests in the City of the Ford of the Ox, it is
to be said that of all men whom we know they receive strangers most
gladly, feasting them all day. Moreover, they have many drinks,
cunningly mixed, and of these the best is that they call Archdeacon,
naming it from one of the priests' offices. Truly, as Homer says
(if the Odyssey be Homer's), "when that draught is poured into the
bowl then it is no pleasure to refrain."

Drinking of this wine, or nectar, Herodotus, I pledge you, and pour
forth some deal on the ground, to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, in the
House of Hades.

And I wish you farewell, and good be with you. Whether the priest
spoke truly, or not truly, even so may such good things betide you
as befall dead men.



LETTER--Epistle to Mr. Alexander Pope