Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries

Introduction

Introduction Many years ago, I had a large and very curious acquaintance among the artisans of the North of England and of London. I learned that they were without any religion whatever—though diligently seeking after one, principally in Comte and his school. Any return to what is called Christianity appeared impossible. It is for them this book was written.l "This book," Suggestionsfor Thought to the Searchers after Truth among the Artizans of England^ was an 829-page work in three volumes that Florence Nightingale had privatelyprinted in 1860. She affectionately referredto it as her "Stuff." Her motivation for writing her "Stuff" wasto offer the artisans, or working class people of England, an alternativeto atheism. Disillusioned with conventional religion and wearyof ungrounded metaphysicalspeculation , manywere turning to the positivist philosophy ofAuguste Comte,2 in which all valid knowledge is based on verifiable propositions. Nightingale was also an empiricist, but, instead of abolishing the concept of God as did Comte, she sought to unify science and religion in a way that would bring order, meaning, and purpose to human life. Sir Edward Cook, Nightingale 's earlyand still most authoritative biographer, wrote that Suggestions for Thought has conspicuous merits along with equallyconspicuous defects: The merits are of the substance; the defects are of form and arrangement; but Miss Nightingale never found time or strength or inclination—I know not which or how many of the three were wanting—to remove the defects by recasting the book. Unpublished, therefore, it is likely, I suppose, to remain. But as it stands it is a remarkablework. No one, indeed, could read it without being impressed by the powerful mind, the spiritual force, and (with some qualifications) the literaryabilityof the writer. If she had not during her more active yearsbeen absorbed in practical affairs, or if at a later time her energy or inclination had not been impaired by ill health, Miss Nightingale might have attained a place among the philosophical writers of the nineteenth century.3 1. Letter to John Stuart Mill (Sept. 5,1860). The correspondence between Nightingale and Mill on the subject of Suggestionsfor Thought is contained in "Florence Nightingale as a Leader in the Religious and Civic Thought of Her Time." 2. For Nightingale's views on positivism, see Chapter 2, "On UniversalLaw." 3. Sir Edward Cook, Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. i, p. 470. x Introduction Although Nightingale was best known for her writings on nursing practice, she alsowrote extensively on the subjects of nursing education and administration, hospital construction and administration, sanitation,statistics , social reform,the health of the Britishsoldier, and the improvement of the farming systems of India. Most of her writings were in the form of privately printed reports, papers published in conferenceproceedings, and newspaper and journal articles.4 The context or basis for all her work, however, is found in Suggestions for Thought. Although Nightingale expressed her opinions on spiritual matters in diary entries and in letters to family and friends, Suggestionsfor Thought, together with two 1873 articlesin Fraser^s Magazine * are the only works exclusivelydevoted to the explication of her spiritual philosophy. Nightingale, who lived for ninety years (1820-1910), wrote Suggestions for Thought when she was in her thirties. The work is thus a product of the young Florence Nightingale, and should be understood within the context of her intellectual and emotional life at that time. Accordingly, this introduction , rather than being a chronologically ordered biography, is a summary of some of the major influences—philosophies, persons, and events— that helped shape her thinking at an early age and thus form the background to Suggestionsfor Thought. Manyof these influences are also treated in the commentarywhere they relate to specific issues in Nightingale's text. Significant events in Nightingale's life are listed in the Chronology at the end of this volume. The Passionate Statistician Named for the Italian cityin which shewas born, Florence wasthe younger of two daughters born to William Edward and Frances ("Fanny") Smith Nightingale. Both parents came from wealthy British backgrounds: her father, the heir to an estate, and her mother, the daughter of aphilanthropic Member of Parliament. William Edward Nightingale, or W.E.N., as he was called, personally supervised the education of his daughters. A graduate of Cambridge and a liberal-minded Unitarian, his viewson the education of women were much in advanceof his time. He taught Florence and her older sister Parthenope 4. See Bishop and Goldie, A Bio-Bibliography of Florence Nightingale. 5. "A 'Note' of Interrogation"; "A...