The commemoration of Florence Nightingale : an oration delivered before the general meeting of the International Council of Nurses, July 1937 / by George Newman.

  • George Newman
Date:
[1937?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The commemoration of Florence Nightingale : an oration delivered before the general meeting of the International Council of Nurses, July 1937 / by George Newman. 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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    seventy years of opinion, and of praise or blame or misinterpretation. Miss Nightingale's character was, like all human character, a complex of heredity and environment, but in her case it was the resultant also of the use of high spiritual forces and will-power in varied circumstance. She was able to prearrange much of the circumstances of her life (as in large measure we can all do), and considered it to be her duty to do so, in order to make both her life and her nursing work directly con- ducive to what she conceived to be her mission. More- over, she took pains to develop a capacity and an insight to capture from circumstance its elements of guidance, and in this sense could justly have preferred the ancient claim / control circumstance, not circumstance me? It has been said that she was paradoxical, vacillating, opinionated, autocratic, intolerant, prejudiced, self- willed, masterful, and in discipline even a martinet. Well, ninety years is a very long period of life, and I daresay that on occasion Miss Nightingale manifested, like the rest of us, each of these qualities. They do not disturb me in the least; they are all human, common to us all, and in any army leader sometimes unavoidable. Quite naturally and properly she was nicknamed The Bird , and it is curious to note how its varied plumage appeared to different observers; a swallow, a martin, a duckling, a dove, a nightingale, a swan, or an eagle; it is perilous at this date to specify. Perhaps from time to time she had some of the characteristics of all these beautiful birds, certainly of the last named! Ruskintoldusthatin order to judge works of consum- mate Art, it is necessary to give them both time and space. And in truth we must stand off some distance to measure or differentiate this great and pre-eminent person—for great and entirely exceptional, history will
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