must go in a procession with the Cross to Kiev, as Moscow went to Troitsa,
and pray there to the divine martyr in the noble form of the metropolitan
Ioannikiy." This queer fellow is convinced that the doctors in the asylum
are poisoning him, and that he is being saved by the miraculous
intervention of Christ in the form of the metropolitan. He is continually
praying to the East and singing, and, addressing himself to God, invariably
adds the words, "in the noble form of the metropolitan Ioannikiy." He has a
lovely expression of face....

From the madhouse I returned late at night in my troika. Two-thirds of the
way I had to drive through the forest in the moonlight, and I had a
wonderful feeling such as I have not had for a long time, as though I had
come back from a tryst. I think that nearness to nature and idleness are
essential elements of happiness; without them it is impossible....




TO MADAME AVILOV.

MELIHOVO,
July, 1894.


I have so many visitors that I cannot answer your last letter. I want to
write at length but am pulled up at the thought that any minute they may
come in and hinder me. And in fact while I write the word "hinder," a girl
has come in and announced that a patient has arrived; I must go.... I have
grown to detest writing, and I don't know what to do. I would gladly take
up medicine and would accept any sort of post, but I no longer have the