A short life of Florence Nightingale : abridged from The life / by Sir Edward Cook, with additional matter, by Rosalind Nash.

  • Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir, 1857-1919.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short life of Florence Nightingale : abridged from The life / by Sir Edward Cook, with additional matter, by Rosalind Nash. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    sou] dies between the destruction of one and the taking up of another. I shall never do anything, and am worse than dust and nothing, I wonder if our Saviour were to walk the earth again, and I were to go to Him and ask, whether He would send me back to live this life again, which crushes me into vanity and deceit. Oh, for some strong thing to sweep this loathsome life into the past. This hopeless mood was not to last long; but for the moment and at many recurring moments in later years, the dejection was intense. The habit of dreaming, as an instinctive refuge from the outer life and from the denial of action, grew upon her and was the theme of constant self-reproach. When all one's imaginations are wandering out of one's reach, then one realises the state of future punishment even in this world. ' To the gentle and pious Aunt Hannah Florence poured out unreservedly the spir- itual wrestlings with which she sought to overcome the misery of an empty life. One desire, for purity of purpose, was perhaps with her through life more constantly than any other. The foundation of all must be the love of God. That the sufferings of Christ's life were intense who doubts? But the happiness must also have been intense. Only think of the happiness of working, and working successfully, with no doubts as to His path, and with no alloy of vanity or love of display or glory, but with the ecstasy of single heartedness! All that I do is always poisoned by the fear that I am not doing it in simplicity and godly sin- cerity. The purpose of caring for the sick and sad grew more and more fixed. The longer I live, she wrote in her diary (22 June 1846), the more I feel as if all my being was gradually drawing to one point, and if I could be permitted to return and accomplish that in another being, if I may not in this, I should need no other heaven. * Letter to Miss Hannah Nicholson, aunt of her Nicholson cousins, May 1846.