Volume I Part 41 (1/2)
V
Miss Nightingale's faent in the Crimea, and indirectly it was the cause of one of the few occasions upon which her barriers were broken through An excellent lady, full of breathless activity and of enthusias her visit to that country by persons anxious for its regeneration, to ”send theale” The lady wasthe South,” and Garibaldi hilishwo She was staying at the Burlington Hotel and, chancing to learn that Miss Nightingale was there also, she burst in upon her
”She wantedthe incursion, ”to write to half the people in London, and to set up a whole system of education at Naples 'You are to write all the statutes,' she said, 'for Ragged Schools, Infant Schools, Industrial Schools, Provident Societies, as you do for the Arht be practical difficulties; ”but though I really talked as loud and as fast as I possibly could, I doubt if she took in a word” The interview left Miss Nightingale much exhausted, and Uncle Sam was called in to prevent any repetition of it She had, however, a real respect for the earnestness of her visitor, and wrote letters to some Italian friends about the scheme
Incursions by casual callers and visits froreater part of her days during the years 1858-61 was spent in transacting the business which has been described in preceding chapters Her voluminous correspondence, her literary work, the daily intervieith Mr Herbert or Dr Sutherland or others on th for seeing other friends and relations, and not very much for correspondence with thereatly attached; more frequently another of her dearest friends, Mrs
Bracebridge, but she was so helpful that her visits st business calls So, but the saious speculation and philanthropic enterprises were ast the business of her life She saw Miss Mary Jones, the Superintendent of St John's House, from time to time; but for the rest she lived in seclusion from her friends and admirers
She was secluded hardly less from her relations Her cousin, Miss Hilary Bonham Carter, or her Aunt Mai, or her cousin Beatrice often stayed in the house; but this did not mean that they saw very much of her ”I communicate with her every day,” wrote Mrs Smith (Jan 1861); ”but I have not seen her to speak to for nearly four years” ”Indeed we know,”
wrote Miss Beatrice to Mr Nightingale, ”how hard it is for you to hear nothing of her, but no one can know anything now that the isolation of work has set in” When Miss Nightingale decided upon ton her headquarters, Aunt Mai had undertaken the difficult co to her parents that itin London, were to go somewhere else It was essential, said Aunt Mai, to Florence's health, on which depended her work, that she should live a life of seclusion; it would be difficult to ward off stray callers, if it were known that her parents ith her Visitors would come to see thely, and had to take their chance, with others, of being adale (June 13), ”I shall always be well enough to see _you_ as long as this oes to Spa the first week in July After that, there will be less pressure on me--the pressure of disappointment in his (more than excusable) administrative indifference But July will be later than your ordinary transit Please tell Maain, a few days later: ”Dear Papa, I will keep all Sunday vacant for you I should like to have you twice, please, say at 11-1/2and 3-1/2”
Hours thus spent with his daughter were aale's life In a letter of 1861 he writes to her: ”'Quidquid ex Agricola amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus manet mansurumque est in animis'[365] I say it not in vain praise, but whatever I have heard at your bedside and from your sofa _manet mansurumque est in aniht catch froins” When the father returned to his pleasant country-houses, he would renew the intercourse with his daughter by turning to her _Suggestions for Thought_:--
(_To Miss Nightingale from her Father_) _July_ 21 [1861] I could realize you, while I turned the pages on the Progress of Man towards that Perfection so sure tho' so slow to co for hiht was to be given hi Was ever faith in the ”perfect law of Love and Goodness”, like yours?--the er faith I also can rely on the invisible Power; but can I give a more reasonable account of my Faith than he who believes in Atonements, Incarnations, Revelations, and so forth? Was ever sentence truer than yours?--”God's plan is that we make mistakes; in them I will try to learn God's purpose”[366] I also feel --but what help do I find? do I _learn_ therefroiveothers or even in helping myself? [Then he turns from such reflections as if too hard for his of her favourite cats, and talks of the hills and streaainst hope, it hts the while] But you will say, ”Tell hts enough elsewhere My other belongings, where are they? I relied on a Secretary of State, where is he? where, my Hospitals? where all th? My mind still strains over the immeasurable wants of the Army I have served, and I a ht that here, if you had wings, you ht be at rest--at this cal down into the far-receding valley and hts as it were into Eternity You will (in your mind's eye at least) rejoice with one, too full perhaps of erring reflection, too short of inspiration
[365] Tacitus, _Agricola_
[366] _Suggestions for Thought_, vol ii p 90