A few words with the convalescent / by John F.W. Ware.

  • John F. W. Ware
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A few words with the convalescent / by John F.W. Ware. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lose heart ? Why not be as brave, as persistent ? The end is as desirable as the victory upon the field. The end is to keep your manhood, your in- tegrity, to keep from slipping into the power of low things. Camp and field have made you heroes. The hospital must not make you recreant and cow- ard. You see by what I say that I have no idea that the uncomfortable things attending convalescence must be tamely submitted to. I cannot agree with a wise friend of mine, who says “ that one of the chief duties of a sick-room is to forget duties, lay aside responsibilities, and so rest the will. We are not under law in sleep, nor are we in sickness.” I think we are under law in sickness. The sick- room, the hospital ward, has its duties. Not the gravely sick, it is true, can be held to much duty, to none of the old duty of active life, but the period of convalescence — the most trying period of sick- ness — has its duties, and they should not be evaded. You must summon yourselves to the discharge of them. It is no excuse that they are hard. No good soldier urges that in health, when any duty or any superior commands. He obeys. The hardness is a stimulant. So much the better soldier is he if he succeed; so much the greater honor. No good soldier should hesitate now. The duty of obedience is as great. The thing at stake is as vital. His own comfort, character, self-respect, are concerned.
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