LESSONS
Reading edition
from
THE LIFE OF
Florence Nightingale
By CHARLOTTE A. AIKENS
Author of “Hospital Training School Methods and the Head Nurse,” “Primary Studies for Nurses,” “Clinical Studies for Nurses,” “Studies in Ethics for Nurses,” etc. Joint Author of Hospital Management. Editor “The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review.”
Lakeside Publishing Company 38-40 West 32nd St. New York.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Born in Florence, Italy, May 12th, 1820; died in London August 13th, 1910
SANTA FILOMENA By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Whene’er a noble deed is wrought Whene’er is spoke a noble thought Our hearts, in glad surprise, To higher levels rise. The tidal wave of deeper souls Into our inmost being rolls And lifts us unawares Out of all meaner cares. Honor to those whose words or deeds Thus help us in our daily needs. And by their overflow Raise us from what is low! Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp. The wounded from the battle-plain In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls, Upon the darkening walls. As if a door in heaven should be Opened and then closed suddenly, The vision came and went, The light shone and was spent. On England’s annals, through the long Hereafter of her speech and song That light its rays shall cast From portals of the past. A Lady with a Lamp shall stand In the great history of the land A noble type of good Heroic womanhood. Nor even shall be wanting here The palm, the lily and the spear The symbols that of yore Saint Filomena bore.