FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 371 father's guidance. These last were afterward of the greatest use to her in the Crimea. But she was no " learned lady ; " only a well-educated Englishwoman all round. She was an excellent musician, and skilful in work with the needle and the delicate trained touch thus acquired stood her in good stead, for the sol- diers used to say that a wound which Miss Nightingale dressed "was sure to get well." She felt a strong craving for work, more even than the schools and cottages, the care of the young, the sick, and the aged (in which she followed her mother's example) cotild afford her at her father's home. Mrs. Browning tells us to " Get leave to work In this world ; 'tis the best you get at all." Florence Nightingale not only got leave to work, but did so, very quietly but very persistently. And so she became a pioneer for less courageous souls, and won for them also "leave to work." Taught by her father, she soon learned to distinguish between what was really good work and which mere make-believe. She had many opportunities, even as a child, of seeing really fine, artistic work both in science and art. She set up a high standard, and was never satisfied with anything short of the best, either in herself or others. It is a grand thing to know good work when you see it. The love of work, however, with Florence Nightingale, always went hand in hand with that love for every living thing in God's world which was born with her and which was never crowded out by all this education. As she grew up she more and more felt that helpfulness was the first law of her being ; but her reason and intellect having been so carefully trained, she was thoroughly per- suaded that, in order to help effectually, one must know thoroughly both the cause of suffering and its radical cure. The study of nursing had an irresistible attraction for her. Few people in England at that time valued nursing. Florence Nightingale was convinced that indifference arose from the ail but absolute ignorance of what nursing should be, land she set herself to acquire the necessary knowledge to enable her to carry it out in the very best and most scientific way. She never lost an opportunity of visiting a hospital, either at home or abroad. She gave up the life of so-called " pleasure," which it was then considered a young woman of her position ought to lead, and after having very carefully examined innumerable nursing institu- tions at home and abroad, at length went to the well-known Pastor Fliedner's Deaconesses, at Kaiserswerth, where she remained for several months. After leaving Kaiserswerth, Miss Nightingale was for a while with the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, in Paris, so anxious was she to see how nursing was carried on under many different systems. It was during 185 1, the year of the first Great Exhibition, that she was thus fitting herself practically for the great task that lay before her in the not very distant future. On her return to England, Miss Nightingale found a patient that required all her time and help of every kind. This patient was none other than the Sanato-
