Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses: A selection from Miss Nightingale's addresses to probationers and nurses of the Nightingale school at St. Thomas's hospitalNightingale, Florence
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Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses: A selection from Miss Nightingale's addresses to probationers and nurses of the Nightingale school at St. Thomas's hospital
Nightingale, Florence
Nursing -- Education -- 19th century; Nursing -- History -- 19th century; Nursing -- Vocational guidance -- 19th century
“We cannot really attach any meaning to _perfect_ thought and feeling,
unless its perfection has been attained through life and work, unless it
is being realised in life and work. It is in fact a contradiction to
suppose Perfection to exist except at work, to exist without exercise,
without ‘working out.’ We cannot conceive of _perfect_ wisdom, perfect
happiness, except as having _attained_, attained perfection through
work. The ideas of the Impassible and of Perfection are
contradictions.... This seems to be the very meaning of the word
‘perfect’--‘made through’--made perfect through
suffering--completed--working out; and even the only idea we can form of
the _Perfect Perfect_ ... ‘God in us,’ ‘grieving the Holy Spirit of
God,’ ‘My Father worketh and I work’--these seem all indications of this
truth.... We cannot explain or conceive of Perfection except as having
worked through Imperfection or sin.... The Eternal Perfect almost
pre-supposes the Eternal Imperfect.” Hence her deep interest in the
“laws which register the connection of physical conditions with moral
actions.” She quotes elsewhere a scientific writer who delighted in the
consciousness that his books were to the best of his ability expounding
the ways of God to man. “I can truly say,” she continues, “that the
feeling he describes has been ever present to my mind. Whether in having
a drain cleaned out, or in ventilating a hospital ward, or in urging
the principles of healthy construction of buildings, or of temperance
and useful occupation, or of sewerage and water supply, I always
considered myself as obeying a direct command of God, and it was ‘with
the earnestness and reverence due to’ God’s laws that I urged them....
For mankind to create the circumstances which create mankind through
these His Laws is the ‘way of God.’”
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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