But through the simple and popular style of the addresses something of a philosophical framework can be seen. When Miss Nightingale hopes that her nurses are a step further on the way to becoming “perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect,” she has in mind the conception she had formed of a moral government of the world in which science, activity, and religion were one. In her unpublished writings these ideas are dwelt on again and again. They are clearly explained in her note on a prayer of St. Teresa:--
“We cannot really attach any meaning to _perfect_ thought and feeling, unless its perfection has been attained through life and work, unless it is being realised in life and work. It is in fact a contradiction to suppose Perfection to exist except at work, to exist without exercise, without ‘working out.’ We cannot conceive of _perfect_ wisdom, perfect happiness, except as having _attained_, attained perfection through work. The ideas of the Impassible and of Perfection are contradictions.... This seems to be the very meaning of the word ‘perfect’--‘made through’--made perfect through suffering--completed--working out; and even the only idea we can form of the _Perfect Perfect_ ... ‘God in us,’ ‘grieving the Holy Spirit of God,’ ‘My Father worketh and I work’--these seem all indications of this truth.... We cannot explain or conceive of Perfection except as having worked through Imperfection or sin.... The Eternal Perfect almost pre-supposes the Eternal Imperfect.” Hence her deep interest in the “laws which register the connection of physical conditions with moral actions.” She quotes elsewhere a scientific writer who delighted in the consciousness that his books were to the best of his ability expounding the ways of God to man. “I can truly say,” she continues, “that the feeling he describes has been ever present to my mind. Whether in having a drain cleaned out, or in ventilating a hospital ward, or in urging the principles of healthy construction of buildings, or of temperance and useful occupation, or of sewerage and water supply, I always considered myself as obeying a direct command of God, and it was ‘with the earnestness and reverence due to’ God’s laws that I urged them.... For mankind to create the circumstances which create mankind through these His Laws is the ‘way of God.’”