I begin to feel the pangs which you must suffer from the perusal of this melancholy paper, and will therefore desist, for I know it is more than your nature can support.  The contrast between last week’s correspondence and this is great indeed; but why? we had only hope then; and have we not the same now? certainly.  Endeavour then, my love, to cherish that hope, and with faith rely upon the mercy of that God who does as to Him seems best and most conducive to the general good of His miserable creatures.

’Bear it then with Christian patience, and instil into the mind of my dear and now sorrowful sisters, by your advice, the same disposition; and, for heaven’s sake, let not despair touch the soul of my dear mother—­for then all would be over.  Let James also employ all his efforts to cheer her spirits under her weight of woe.  I will write no more.  Adieu, my dearest love!  Write but little to me, and pray for your ever affectionate but ill-fated brother.

     ’P.S.—­I am in perfect spirits, therefore let not your
     sympathizing feelings for my sufferings hurt your own precious
     health, which is dearer to me than life itself.  Adieu!—­’

In a letter to his mother he assures her of the perfect tranquillity of his mind; advises her not to entertain too sanguine hopes, but at the same time not to be uneasy; and he adds, ’A minister of the gospel, who now attends me, has advised me not to say too much to any of my dear relations, but now and then I cannot avoid it.’  To his dearest Nessy, who encourages him to take hope, he says, ’Alas! it is but a broken stick which I have leaned on, and it has pierced my soul in such a manner that I will never more trust to it, but wait with a contented mind and patience for the final accomplishment of the Divine will....  Mrs. Hope is a faithless and ungrateful acquaintance, with whom I have now broken off all connexions, and in her stead have endeavoured to cultivate a more sure friendship with Resignation, in full trust of finding her more constant.’  He desires her to write through her brother James who is with him; and says that the reason for his having desired her not to write much was, lest she might hurt herself by it; and he adds, ’from an idea that your exalted sentiments upon so tender a subject ought not to be known by an inquiring world; but,’ he continues, ’do just as you like best:  I am conscious that your good sense will prompt you to nothing inconsistent with our present circumstances.’  To this she replies, in the true spirit of a character like her own.  ’Yes! my ever dearest brother, I will write to you, and I know I need not add, that in that employment (while thus deprived of your loved society) consists my only happiness.  But why not express my sentiments to yourself?  I have nothing to say which I should blush to have known to all the world;—­nothing to express in my letters to you but love and affection, and shall