The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
History
The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2
Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910
Miss Nightingale did not relish all this. They had sent her various
supplies for the sick, and also a packet of "Lives," "Portraits," and
the like to Scutari. "My effigies and praises," she wrote in reply,
"were less welcome. I do not affect indifference to real sympathy, but I
have felt painfully, the more painfully since I have had time to hear of
it, the éclat which has been given to this adventure. The small still
beginning, the simple hardship, the silent and _gradual_ struggle
upwards, these are the climate in which an enterprise really thrives and
grows. Time has not altered our Saviour's lesson on that point, which
has been learnt successively by all reformers from their own experience.
The vanity and frivolity which the éclat thrown upon this affair has
called forth has done us unmitigated harm, and has brought mischief on
(perhaps) one of the most promising enterprises that ever set sail from
England. Our own old party which began its work in hardship, toil,
struggle, and obscurity has done better than any other."
III
When it became known in England that Miss Nightingale had recovered from
her illness, and had resolved to remain at her post until the end of the
war, a movement at once sprang up for marking in some public manner the
nation's appreciation of her services and her devotion. There was at
first some idea, as Lady Verney wrote, of a personal testimonial in the
"teapot and bracelet" kind. Mrs. Herbert, who was consulted in the
matter, knew her friend well enough to be certain that Miss Nightingale
would decline to accept any such proposal. The only form of testimonial
to which she would ever listen was something to enable her the better to
carry on her work for others. Miss Nightingale was written to, and
replied, in accordance with Mrs. Herbert's expectation, that she must
absolutely decline any testimonial of a personal character. Her friends
knew well that what she would best like was the establishment in one
form or another of "an English Kaiserswerth." This suggestion was
accordingly put before her, and she was asked to submit a plan. Her
reply was, again, very characteristic. Immersed in the crowded work of
the moment, she was in no mood to make future plans; but she took the
earliest opportunity of intimating that, whatever the plan might be, she
must be the autocrat of it. "Dr. Bence-Jones has written to me," she
said (Sept. 27), "for a plan. People seem to think that I have nothing
to do but to sit here and form plans. If the public choose to recognize
my services and my judgment in this manner, they must leave those
services and that judgment unfettered." She was experiencing enough of
fetters in the East to last her for a lifetime. An influential Committee
was formed, on which Mr. Sidney Herbert and Mr. S. C. Hall served as
honorary secretaries, and it was decided to raise a fund for the
establishment of some School for Nurses, under a Council, to be
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