Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/17



o occupation can be quite intelligently followed or correctly understood unless it is, at least to some extent, illumined by the light of history interpreted from the human standpoint. The origin of our various activities, the spirit animating the founders of a profession, and the long struggle toward an ideal as revealed by a search into the past,—these vivify and ennoble the most prosaic labours, clarify their relation to all else that humanity is doing, and give to workers an unfailing inspiration in the consciousness of being one part of a great whole. For example, the labour movement, to those who know its history, appears as a mighty drama to which the uninformed may be quite blind. So, too, in every