Árdís - 01.01.1955, Page 24

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ÁRDÍ S
dared to dream of, much less to attempt to have, a career. How-
ever, Florence dared to dream and in an unobtrusive way did all
she could to obtain information about nursing and hospitals. Out-
wardly, she continued her gay social life of drawing room and
opera, mostly to please her mother. Inwardly, she became more
and more interested in politics and brooded about the conditions
of the world. She read all she could about economics and social
developments, and was profundly interested in statistics and spent
hours in compiling these. This was a time of domestic change and
reform and the works of men like Dickens caused Florence much
thought. The plight of working children, education reform and
the slave problems, as well as the lot of the poor, troubled her
greatly.
At the age of 19, Florence Nightingale was unusally mature in
her thinking and outlook, albeit a pronounced introvert much given
to brooding and gloomy contemplation. Even on her first trip
abroad she managed to collect considerable information about hos-
pital management in France. Although a social success she was
different from the girls of her own age. She thought very deeply
about religion, was a searcher, not an acceptor, wanted to know
the truth about God. Later she became very interested in Roman
Catholicism but in spite of the efforts of her friend Archbishop
Manning to convert her, she remained a staunch Protestant to the
end of her days.
Despite her serious nature, she had quite a sense of humor.
As she grew older, her talent for organization developed, as did her
executive ability. Her craving for learning continued and her
youthful save-the-world complex was still present. She resented
the rigid traditions of her class which prevented her from useful
activity or becoming an emancipator. She felt her life was super-
ficial and false as is shown by this entry in her diary, “the only
way to make life more real is to do something to relieve human
misery.” But alas she was not a fighter, and she was to suffer
much mental anguish before she got sufficient courage to assert
herself and fly in the face of convention.
Her first actual attempt to become a nurse was apparently
made in 1842. Two years later she discussed it with a friend—a
doctor who encouraged her. The following year she broached the