298 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



question. To moisten the sufferer's parched lips through 

 the long night-watches, to bear up the drooping head, 

 to lift the helpless limbs, to divine the want that can 

 find no utterance beyond the feeble motion of the hand, 

 the beseeching glance of the eye — these are offices that 

 demand no self-questioning, no casuistry, no assent to 

 propositions, no weighing of consequences. Within the 

 four walls where the stir and glare of the world are shut 

 out, and every voice is subdued — where a human being 

 lies prostrate, thrown on the tender mercies of his fellow 

 — the moral relation of man to man is reduced to its 

 utmost clearness and simplicity ; bigotry cannot confuse it, 

 theory cannot pervert it, passion awed into quiescence 

 can neither pollute nor perturb it. As we bend over the 

 sick-bed, all the forces of our nature rush towards the 

 channels of pity, of patience, and of love, and sweep down 

 the miserable choking drift of our quarrels, our debates, 

 our would-be wisdom, and our clamorous, selfish desires.' 

 If this picture is true, and every word of it comes home 

 to me as a truth, then surely life as it is now is in some 

 respects a poorer, weaker thing in consequence of the 

 modem idea which, under the power of the medical pro- 

 fession, sends our husbands to a private hospital for an 

 operation, and hands over our sick in our own homes, let us 

 say to the very best of women, but to women who never saw 

 them before, and who, we hope, will never see them again. 

 These excellent women, though paid by you, are virtually 

 the servants of the doctor, to do his bidding, and even, 

 if necessary, to cover and veil his mistakes or screen his 

 faults. The pr6fessional reputation of the nurse is not 

 in any way affected by the life or death of her patient ; so 

 long as she does her duty, death is an incident in the course 

 of business. But her very livelihood depends on her saying 

 that the operation was weU performed, and on pleasing 

 the doctor who attends after the operation is over. I do 



