enough for it to become information. Now is not all this the result of want of sympathy?... You say of M^{me} Récamier that her existence was "empty but brilliant." And you attribute it to want of family. Oh, dear friend, don't give in to that sort of tradition. People often say to me, You don't know what a wife and mother feels. No, I say, I don't and I'm very glad I don't. And _they_ don't know what I _feel_.... I am sick with indignation at what wives and mothers will do of the most egregious selfishness. And people call it all maternal or conjugal affection, and think it pretty to say so. No, no, let each person tell the truth from his own experience. Ezekiel went running about naked, "for a sign." I can't run about naked because it is not the custom of the country. But I would mount three widows' caps on my head, "for a sign." And I would cry, This is for Sidney Herbert, This is for Arthur Clough, and This, the biggest widow's cap of all, is for the loss of all sympathy on the part of my dearest and nearest.[7] ... I cannot understand how M^{me} Récamier could give "advice and sympathy" to such opposite people as, _e.g._ M^{me} Salvage and Chateaubriand. Neither can I understand how she could give "support" without recommending a distinct line of policy,--by merely keeping up the tone to a high one. It is as if I had said to Sidney Herbert, Be a statesman, be a statesman--instead of indicating to him a definite course of statesmanship to follow. Also I am sure I never could have given "advice and sympathy" to Gladstone and S. Herbert--men pursuing opposite lines of policy. Also I am sure I never could have been the friend and adviser of Sidney Herbert, of Alexander, and of others, by simply keeping up the tone of general conversation on promiscuous matters. We debated and settled _measures_ together. That is the way we did it. Adieu, dear friend.... I have had two consultations. They say that all this worry has brought on congestion of the spine which leads straight to paralysis.... [7] The reference here is to the Aunt who, in earlier years, had been in close companionship with her. At this time there was some misunderstanding between them. Mrs. Smith's advancing age and home claims brought a cessation of her constant activity in Miss Nightingale's service; but in later years aunt and niece took much counsel together in a resumed study of the religious subjects upon which they had formerly held intimate converse: see below, pp. 353, 387.