1874 (with additions in later years) to transcribing or translating and arranging passages from devotional writers of the Middle Ages. She had sent some of her book in various stages to Mr. Jowett, who, with other suggestions, said (April 18, 1873) that she ought to add "a Preface showing the use of such books. They are apt to appear unreal, and yet Thomas à Kempis has been one of the most influential books in the world. The subject of the Preface should be the use of the ideal and especially the spiritual ideal. I do not say what may be the case with great Saints themselves, but for us I think it is clear that this mystic state ought to be an occasional and not a permanent feeling--a taste of heaven in daily life. Do you think it would be possible to write a mystical book which would also be the essence of Common Sense?" [145] He made use of her suggestion in a postscript (in the _second_ edition) to his Introduction to the _Phaedrus_. II I construct the Preface from various notes and rough drafts in Miss Nightingale's hand:-- It may seem a strange thing to begin a book with:--this Book is not for any one who has time to read it--but the meaning of it is: this reading is good only as a preparation for work. If it is not to inspire life and work, it is bad. Just as the end of food is to enable us to live and work, and not to live and eat, so the end of--most reading perhaps, but certainly of--mystical reading is not to read but to work. For what is Mysticism? Is it not the attempt to draw near to God, not by rites or ceremonies, but by inward disposition? Is it not merely a hard word for "The Kingdom of Heaven is within"? Heaven is neither a place nor a time. There might be a Heaven not only _here_ but _now_. It is true that sometimes we must sacrifice not only health of body, but health of mind (or, peace) in the interest of God; that is, we must sacrifice Heaven. But "thou shalt be like God for thou shalt see Him as He is": this may be _here_ and _now_, as well as _there_ and _then_. And it may be for a time--then lost--then recovered--both _here_ and _there_, both _now_ and _then_. That Religion is not devotion, but work and suffering for the love of God; this is the true doctrine of Mystics--as is more particularly set forth in a definition of the 16th century: "True religion is to have no other will but God's." Compare this with the definition of Religion in Johnson's _Dictionary_: "Virtue founded upon reverence of God and expectation of future rewards and punishments"; in other words on respect and self-interest, not love. Imagine the religion which inspired the life of Christ "founded" on the motives given by Dr. Johnson!