Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/349

333 The Past and Future 333 and ignorance have caused in despite of thy laws; and I can teach my gentler sister how her minis- trations may be thrice blessed. She shall blunder and stumble no longer; there is a knowledge and discipline that shall prevail over ignorance and prejudice, and equip her for her struggle with disease, and the dirt and folly that are its cause. " Then Hygeia, the presiding deity, shows how science and skill must be wedded to the spirit of service and self-sacrifice, how the head and hand must reinforce and direct the heart in order that nursing shall be something more than "kindly ignorance" stumbling on in the dark "for without that knowledge and skill no tenderness, no sym- pathy, no love, no gentleness will save the sick and suffering. If science guide not pity, she may well harm those she seeks to save. " It was Florence Nightingale who first showed the world that nursing was an art, "the finest of the fine arts," and who first insisted on the need for a long and careful training which should in- clude not only extended practice in the art itself, but sound knowledge of the principles on which it is based. It is this new emphasis on expert skill and knowledge which distinguishes the modern conception of nursing from the older idea of a purely voluntary religious or personal service on