Lord unto thee: He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.... But, when we are ill, how can we be like God? I look up and see the drops of dew, blue, golden, green, and red, glittering in the sun on the top of the deciduous cypress--_that_ is like God. We see Him for a moment--we perceive His beauty. It lights us, even when we lie here prostrate.... Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God--in all temptation, trials, and aridities, in the agony and bloody sweat, in the Cross and Passion: this is not the prerogative of the future life, but of the present." PART VI MANY THREADS (1867-1872) I beg of you and pray you to look back upon the past with thankfulness and upon the future with hope--when there has been so much done and there is so much to do ... many beginnings and ravelled threads to be woven in and completed.--BENJAMIN JOWETT (_Letter to Miss Nightingale_, 1867). CHAPTER I WORKHOUSE REFORM (1864-1867) From the first I had a sort of fixed faith that Florence Nightingale could do anything, and that faith is still fresh in me; and so it came to pass that the instant that name entered the lists I felt the fight was virtually won, and I feel this still.-- H. B. FARNELL, Poor Law Inspector (Dec. 1866).