The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
History
The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2
Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910
And there was another thing which she did in order to forward Sidney
Herbert's work, though in a field outside that of their collaboration:
she wrote a stirring letter (Oct. 8) on the Volunteer Movement, which he
had organized in 1859. It brought her several "offers," as we have heard
already[4]; and, displayed in large print on a card, must have attracted
many recruits. She wrote it as one who had experience of war and its
lessons; as one, too, who had worked for the Army, "seven years this
very month, without the intermission of one single waking hour." She
made eloquent appeal to the patriotic spirit of the British people; and
she included this piece of personal feeling: "On the saddest night of
all my life, two months ago, when my dear chief Sidney Herbert lay
dying, and I knew that with him died much of the welfare of the British
Army--he was, too, so proud, so justly proud, of his Volunteers--on that
night I lay listening to the bands of the Volunteers as they came
marching in successively--it had been a review-day--and I said to
myself, 'The nation can never go back which is capable of such a
movement as this; not the spirit of an hour; these are men who have all
something to give up; all men whose time is valuable for money, which is
not their god, as other nations say of us.'" I do not know if the name
of Florence Nightingale be still--as it ought to be--a name of power
with the people. If it is, then her letter of 1861 might well be
reprinted in connection with recruiting for the Territorial Force. She
laid stress upon the voluntary spirit, as opposed to compulsion. But she
laid stress also on the supreme importance of efficient training:
"Garibaldi's Volunteers did excellently in guerilla movements; they
failed before a fourth-rate regular army."
[4] Vol. I. p. 496.
III
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