Florence Nightingale.
(From a model of the statue by A. G. Walker. By kind permissionof the Sculptor.)
FLORENCE
NIGHTINGALE
A BIOGRAPHY
BY
ANNIE MATHESON
AUTHOR OF
“THE STORY OF A BRAVE CHILD (JOAN OF ARC)”
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS
LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN, AND NEW YORK
“The Lady with the Lamp.”
(From the statuette in the Nightingale Home.)
It is hardly necessary to say that this little biographyis based mainly upon the work of others,though I hope and believe it is honest enough tohave an individuality of its own and it has certainlycost endless individual labour and anxiety.Few tasks in literature are in practice moreworrying than the responsibility of “piecingtogether” other people’s fragments, and “thegreat unknown” who in reviewing my “Leavesof Prose” thought I had found an easy wayof turning myself into respectable cement fora tessellated pavement made of other people’schipped marble, was evidently a stranger to myparticular temperament. Where I have beenfree to express myself without regard to others,to use only my own language, and utter only myown views, I have had something of the feelingof a child out for a holiday, and of course thegreater part of the book is in my own words.But I have often, for obvious reasons, chosen thehumbler task, because, wherever it is possible, it[iv]is good that my readers should have their impressionsat first hand, and in regard to Kinglakeespecially, from whose non-copyright volumesI have given many a page, his masculine tributeto Miss Nightingale is of infinitely more valuethan any words which could come from me.
My publisher has kindly allowed me to leavemany questions of copyright to him, but I wish,not the less—rather the more—to thank all thoseauthors and publishers who have permitted useof their material and whose names will, in manyinstances, be found incorporated in the text or inthe accompanying footnotes. I have not thoughtit necessary in every instance to give a referenceto volume and page, though occasionally, forsome special reason of my own, I have done so.
Of those in closest touch with Miss Nightingaleduring her lifetime, whose help with originalmaterial has been invaluable, not more than onecan be thanked by name. But to Mrs. Tooleyfor her large-hearted generosity with regard toher own admirable biography—to which I owefar more than the mere quotations so kindly permitted,and in most cases so clearly acknowledged[v]in the text—it is a great pleasure to express mythanksgiving publicly.
There are many others who have