The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2

You have sown the seed, and the harvest will come. God will give the increase.--SIR JOHN MCNEILL (_Letter to Florence Nightingale_, on her "Notes affecting the Health of the Bri...

With aching hands, and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light retu...

It fortifies my soul to know That, though I perish, Truth is so: That, howsoe'er I stray and range, Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change. I steadier step when I recall That, if I...

Her passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many-volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her? Her flame quickly burned up...

Whenever the British people have muddled through a war, there is a time of repentance and heart-searching. England the Unready turns round uneasily and thinks that she must now...

We have made Miss Nightingale's acquaintance, and are delighted and very much struck by her great gentleness and simplicity, and wonderful, clear, and comprehensive head. I wish...

To the tender sentiment and popular adoration that gathered around the subject of this Memoir, something perhaps was added by the beauty of a name which linked together the City...

Few women, and not many men, have lived a fuller and busier life than was Miss Nightingale's during the five years which followed her return from the Crimean War. They were year...

Write that, when pride of human skill Fell prostrate with the weight of care, And men pray'd out for some strong will, Some reason 'mid the wild despair,-- The loving heart of W...

Not for delectations sweet, Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pione...

Where is the woman who shall be the Clara or the Teresa of Protestant England, labouring for the certain benefit of her sex with their ardour, but without their delusion?--SOUTH...

Lo, as some venturer from his stars receiving Promise and presage of sublime emprise, Wears evermore the seal of his believing Deep in the dark of solitary eyes. F. W. H. MYERS.

On September 8, 1855, Sebastopol fell, after assaults, as every one remembers, which had filled the British cemeteries and hospitals. Miss Nightingale's time from this date to t...

It was an event of some importance in the Nightingale family when Florence set out with Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, in the autumn of 1847, to spend the winter at Rome. The attract...

The Nation is grateful to you for what you did at Scutari, but all that it was possible for you to do there was a trifle compared with the good you are doing now.--SIR JOHN MCNE...

Though the outward man may perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal...

I have no hesitation in saying that Miss Nightingale has exhibited greater power of organization, a greater familiarity with details, while at the same time taking a comprehensi...

The progress of the reforms, sketched in the foregoing chapter, was somewhat impeded, and an extension of them to a further point was altogether arrested, by a cause against whi...

It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm. It is quite necessary, nevertheless, to lay down suc...

Miss Nightingale looks to her reward from this country in having a fresh field for her labours, and means of extending the good that she has already begun. A compliment cannot b...

In the autumn of 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, who were to spend some months in the East, again proposed that Miss Nightingale should travel with them, and again the offer was...

"The value of Hospitals as schools of surgery and medicine is hardly greater than is their usefulness as a training for nurses, and the field is no less large. It is an employme...

The only happiness a brave man ever troubled himself with asking much about was, happiness enough to get his work done. It is, after all, the one unhappiness of a man, that he c...

I remember hearing the first Lord Goschen make a speech in Whitechapel many years ago, in which he avowed that for his part he was "a passionate statistician." "Go with me," he...

The three months which Miss Nightingale spent at Kaiserswerth in 1851 were a turning-point in her career, but they were not immediately effectual in altering the tenor of her li...

Then in such hour of need ... Ye, like angels, appear, Radiant with ardour divine!... Order, courage, return ... Ye move through the ranks, recall The stragglers, refresh the ou...

There are Private Martyrs as well as burnt or drowned ones. Society of course does not know them; and Family cannot, because our position to one another in our families is, and...

Every generation has its own "religious difficulty," by which phrase is meant, not the difficulty which the individual soul or the collective soul of a nation may find in its re...

Dearth of creative brain-power showed itself in our Levantine hospitals, for there industrious functionaries worked hard at their accustomed tasks, and doggedly omitted to innov...

In the spring of 1855 Miss Nightingale decided to leave Scutari for a while in order to visit the hospitals in the Crimea. The conditions at Scutari were now greatly improved. S...

Peace was signed at Paris on March 30, 1856; but there was still work to be done in the Crimean hospitals, and Miss Nightingale remained at Balaclava, as we have seen, till the...

Continued ill-health--Serious illness and expectation of early death--Yet constant work--Doctor's opinions--Necessity for husbanding her strength. II. Consequent manner of life-...

On the ocean no post brings us letters which we are compelled to answer. No newspaper tempts us into reading the last night's debate in Parliament. The absence of distracting in...

The craving for sympathy, which exists between two who are to form one indivisible and perfect whole, is in most cases between man and woman, in some between man and God. This t...

Human nature is a noble and beautiful thing; not a foul nor a base thing. All the sin of men I esteem as their disease, not their nature; as a folly which can be prevented, not...

"Muddling through a war": the favourable moment for reform. Advantage taken of the opportunity after the Crimean War for the better sanitation of the British Army--Co-operation...

Fruits of Miss Nightingale's labours. Publication of the Report of the Royal Commission--Her measures for calling attention to the rate of mortality; for securing reviews of the...

Power of departmental passive resistance: delay in setting up the Commission. Lord Panmure's gout--"The Bison is bullyable"--Miss Nightingale's weapon in reserve: her potential...

Three great contributions of the 19th century to the relief of human suffering in disease. Miss Nightingale's place in the history of nursing--The founder not of nursing, but of...

The religious sanction behind Miss Nightingale's life of work-- Resumption of her theological speculations--Printing of her _Suggestions for Thought_--General character of the b...

The Battle of Balaclava. Miss Nightingale's reception at Scutari: letter from Lord Raglan--Difficulties with the doctors--Miss Nightingale at work in the wards--Difficulties wit...

Miss Nightingale's varied functions. Purveyor-Auxiliary to the hospitals--Ignorance of the Ambassador as to the true state of things--Deficiencies in the stores--Miss Nightingal...

Fall of Sebastopol: Miss Nightingale's second and third visits to the Crimea. Hardships of her work in the Crimea--Her "carriage"-- The hospital huts on the heights above Balacl...

Break-down of Mr. Herbert's health. His interview with Miss Nightingale (December 1860): decision to give up the House of Commons--Created Lord Herbert of Lea--Her insistence th...

Importance of the Nightingale Training School--Early history of the "Nightingale Fund"--Accumulation of the money during Miss Nightingale's absorption in other work--Appointment...

A struggle for freedom. Life in London--Music--The Bedchamber Plot. II. Country-house life--The charm of Embley--Contrast between Florence and her sister. III. The family circle...

Visit to Paris--Study in the hospitals--Return to England: death of her grandmother. II. Miss Nightingale invited to take charge of an institution in Harley Street. III. Return...

Statistics as a passion. Miss Nightingale's study of the works of Quetelet--Careless statistical records in the Crimean War--Her model Hospital Statistical Forms--Advantage to b...

Name, ancestry, and parentage. II. Her father's circumstances --Her early homes--Lea Hurst (Derbyshire)--Mrs. Gaskell's description--Embley Park (Hampshire). III. Early years--C...

A tour that confirmed a vocation. Sight-seeing in Rome--Admiration for Michael Angelo--The revelation of the Sistine Chapel--The obsession of Rome. II. Italian politics--Pio Non...

Miss Nightingale as an inspirer of reform--Sources of her influence --Favour of the Court--Letter from Queen Victoria: her gifts to the soldiers. II. Miss Nightingale's reports...

We can do no more for those who have suffered and died in their country's service; they need our help no longer; their spirits are with God who gave them. It remains for us to s...

The turning-point. Patience and serenity: waiting for an opportunity. II. With her father at Umberslade--The water cure --Death of her Aunt Evans--Meeting with George Eliot and...

The everyday management of a large ward, let alone of a hospital, the knowing what are the laws of life and death for men, and what the laws of health for wards (and wards are h...

Miss Nightingale's work with Sidney Herbert carried on at the same time with other work. Her place as a Sanitarian--Her prestige as an authority on hospitals--Her _Notes on Hosp...

Dejection. Friendship with Miss Nicholson: religious experiences and speculations--Letters to Miss Nicholson and Miss Clarke. II. The reality of the unseen world--The conviction...

Frequent futility of Royal Commissions. Mr. Herbert's and Miss Nightingale's plans for averting the danger--Proposed series of Sub-Commissions to settle the details of reform--L...

Dual position of Miss Nightingale: administrator and nurse. Prodigious power of work--Her attention to the sick and wounded --Her midnight vigils--The famous lamp--The soldiers...

The Battle of the Alma--The _Times_ special correspondent--State of the hospitals at Scutari--Popular indignation--An appeal for nurses. II. Answer to the appeal--Lady Maria For...

Siege of Sebastopol. The hospitals in the Crimea--Miss Nightingale's authority there not explicitly defined--Her arrival at Balaclava. II. Visit to the front--Sir John McNeill....

Nature of the religious difficulty. Rivalry between the churches --Various claims for "representation" among the nursing staff-- "Anti-Puseyite" attacks. II. Miss Nightingale's...

The struggle for independence resumed. Want of sympathy between her and her parents and sister--Unhappiness at home--A "starved" life. II. Growing spirit of revolt--The need of...

Sympathy in England caused by Miss Nightingale's illness. The popular heroine: letters from Lady Verney. II. The poetry of Seven Dials, verses, songs, lives, portraits, etc.--Mi...

Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be? --It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought Upon the...

Miss Nightingale's ministrations to the moral welfare of the soldiers--Her belief in the possibility of reforms. II. Her letter to the Queen on drunkenness in the army: consider...

I go to prove my soul! I see my way as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive--what time, what circuit first, I ask not; but unless God send his hail Or blinding fire-balls,...

The Peace. Return of the nurses--Miss Nightingale's tribute to her "mainstays." II. The Government's thanks to Miss Nightingale-- Gratitude of the soldiers--Offer of a man-of-wa...

Another fruitless distraction. A winter in Egypt--Thebes --Condition of the people--Impressions of Egyptian scenery. II. Athens--Doric architecture--Greek scenery. III. Politica...

Start of the expedition--Failure to obtain Sisters of Charity in Paris--Reception of the expedition in France--Departure from Marseilles. II. Popular enthusiasm in England--Acco...

"Disappointment's dry and bitter root." Pursuit of her ideal --Obstacles to her adoption of nursing--Social prejudices--Low esteem of nurses at the time--The Kaiserswerth "Insti...

Arrival at the Golden Horn. The Scutari hospitals--The General Hospital--The Barrack Hospital: quarters of Miss Nightingale and her staff--The Palace Hospital--The Koulali Hospi...

The three paths. Why Florence Nightingale did not marry--Her criticism of Dorothea in _Middlemarch_. II. Offers of marriage--Her ideal of marriage--The threefold nature. III. Se...