The Kiss

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  “Ryabovitch pulled the bed-clothes over his head, curled himself up in bed, and tried to gather together the floating images in his mind and to combine them into one whole. But nothing came of it. He soon fell asleep, and his last thought was that someone had caressed him and made him happy—that something extraordinary, foolish, but joyful and delightful, had come into his life. The thought did not leave him even in his sleep. When he woke up the sensations of oil on his neck and the chill of peppermint about his lips had gone, but joy flooded his heart just as the day before.” The Kiss By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)

Finished Reading: “The Alchemist”

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“Take three drops of vinegar in at your nose, two at your mouth, and one at either ear; then bathe your fingers’ ends and wash your eyes, to sharpen your five senses.” 


(Ben Jonson (1572–1637).  “The Alchemist.” A satire on the foolishness of humanity and people who take advantage of others. Painting by Johann Zoffany (c. 1770))

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