Autograph letter signed : 10 Blacket Place [Edinburgh], to Mrs. Gray, 1848 Mar. 21.

Giving his observation of "the young folks": their happiness and confiding affection, good principles and good tempers. John is now a different person, having lost "the interest of suffering and sadness which... gave him before a peculiar tenderness." Phemy is improved in every way: "I quite value her cheerful enliving society." It was a good idea to have them meet here, with "no one to watch & pry into their movements... they seem wonderfully insensible to the outward world!" There have been almost no guests, though he will have some distinguished artists on Friday. Events of the last four weeks impress him as the beginning of the desolation predicted in the Apocalypse, to destroy the papacy and infidel powers and, after a dark night of disaster, to usher in the glorious reign of Gospel principles.