Introduction dwells too much on the _form_ of the _Gorgias_ and does

not bring out in sufficiently striking relief the great truths which Socrates labours so strenuously to enforce that he almost seems to lose himself in them. These great moral truths are (are they not?):--(1) _It is a greater evil to do than to suffer injustice._ If you call this a "paradox," why do you not call the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah a paradox? Is it not the highest of truths? (2) _It is a greater evil not to be punished than to be punished for wrong._ I have no idea why you call this a paradox. It follows from all the higher experience of the life of every one of us. In family life I see it every day. I see the "spoilt child" making himself, and oftener herself, and everyone else miserable, down to mature life or extreme old age. (Tho' the "punishments" of my life have been somewhat severe, yet I can bless God, even in this world, that never in all my life have I been allowed to "do as I liked.") ... [139] See _first_ edition, vol. ii. p. 145, and _second_ edition, vol. iii. pp. 161-162. [140] On one occasion she forgot the Greek for "Limitless," and asked Mr. Jowett to tell her. He replied by quoting Homer: "[Greek: amoton memauia], raging insatiably or without limit"-- adding wickedly "Whom did this represent?" [141] See _second_ edition, vol. iii. p. 145. If the reader cares to take this passage to a comparison of the second with the first edition of Mr. Jowett's Introduction,[142] he will discover again how largely, and closely, Miss Nightingale's criticisms were accepted. She dealt similarly--giving precise references for every statement--with the greater part of the Dialogues. "In the _Phaedrus_," said Mr. Jowett (July 22, 1873), "I have put in most of what you suggested and made some additions. You are quite right in thinking that I should get as much modern truth into the Introductions as possible. It is a great opportunity; which I have had in view, but not so clearly as since you wrote to me." [142] The references are: _first_ edition, vol. iii. pp. 26 _seq._; _second_ edition, vol. ii. pp. 302 _seq._ Miss Nightingale continued, as in former years, to send Mr. Jowett suggestions for sermons. "I have written part of your sermon," he wrote, when she had sent him an outline of what she would like him to preach from the University pulpit. When he became Master of Balliol he projected a Special Form for daily service in the College Chapel, and Miss Nightingale suggested a selection of passages from the Psalms under the heads of "God the Lord," "God the Judge," "God the Father," "God the Friend," "the Way of the Cross," and so forth. Mr. Jowett had, however, to abandon the project in deference to superior authority.[143] Another scheme was carried out. In 1873 an edition of the Bible appeared which has a history of some interest. _The School and Children's Bible_ it was called; the name of the Rev. William Rogers, of Bishopsgate, appears on the title-page, but the selection was in fact made for the most part by Mr. Jowett, with the help of some of his friends.[144] That Mr. Swinburne was one of these friends, we know from the poet's own recollections; it is not generally known that the other principal collaborator with Mr. Jowett was Miss Nightingale. Mr. Swinburne's help was in one respect disappointing. "I wanted you," said Mr. Jowett to him with a smile, "to help me to make this book smaller, and you have persuaded me to make it much larger." The poet, who was complimented on his thorough familiarity with sundry parts of the sacred text, thought that Mr. Jowett had excluded too much of the prophetic and poetic elements, not taking into account "the delight that a child may take in things beyond the grasp of his perfect comprehension, though not beyond the touch of his apprehensive or prehensile faculty." Miss Nightingale, whose familiarity with the Bible was probably even closer and more extensive than Mr. Swinburne's and with whom Biblical criticism was a favourite study, also wanted a great deal put in which Mr. Jowett had left out, but her instinct for edification led her to suggest equivalent omissions. She took great pains with her suggestions, illustrating them in letters to Mr. Jowett with many characteristic remarks by the way:-- It is impossible to keep up acquaintance with a man, however otherwise estimable, who separates the 26 last chapters of Isaiah from Isaiah merely by a shabby little note and asterisk. Surely those chapters belong to the end of the Babylonish Captivity and should be separated by a distinct division; while the shabby little note and asterisk might go to some isolated chapters (_e.g._ xiii., xiv.) among the first 39 which belong to the same time, the end of the Captivity--whereas the first 39 chapters (generally) appear to belong to the "Middle Ages" of Prophecy. But as it may be judged inconvenient to put Chaps. xl.-lxvi. of Isaiah in a different part of the Bible, I will concede that point and simply classify them (I follow Ewald's order). But they _must_ be under a separate Heading with "End of Babylonian Captivity" (or words to that effect) printed distinctly _under the heading_ (not in a note). [143] "The Bishop has disallowed our 'Versicles' and some other things on legal grounds--_i.e._ on the opinion of Sir Travers Twiss (poor man!). We will have them in a particular book of our own. He says 'they are admirably selected'" (_Letter from Mr. Jowett_, March 16, 1872). [144] See Abbott and Campbell's _Life and Letters of Jowett_, vol. ii. pp. 35-36, and "Recollections of Professor Jowett" in Swinburne's _Studies in Prose and Poetry_, p. 33. The full title of the book was _The School and Children's Bible prepared under the Superintendence of the Rev. William Rogers_. London: Longmans, 1873. More generally, she criticized the first selection sent to her as showing some want of proportion. There was no clear plan, she thought, as to the space to be given, respectively, to:-- (_a_) Matters of _universal_ importance, moral and spiritual (_e.g._ the finest parts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the New Testament); (_b_) matters of _historical_ importance (_e.g._ which embrace the history of great nations, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. The petty wars of the petty tribes seem to take up a quite disproportionate space); (_c_) matters of _local_ importance, which have acquired a _universal moral_ significance (_e.g._ Jonah is entirely left out: yet Jonah has a moral and spiritual meaning, while Samson, Balaam and Bathsheba have none); (_d_) matters of _merely local_ importance, with no significance but an _immoral_ one (_e.g._ the stories about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, almost all Joshua and Judges, and very much of Samuel and Kings). The story of Achilles and his horses is far more fit for children than that of Balaam and his ass, which is only fit to be told to asses. The stories of Samson and of Jephthah are only fit to be told to bull-dogs; and the story of Bathsheba, to be told to Bathshebas. Yet we give all these stories to children as "Holy Writ." There are some things in Homer we might better call "Holy" Writ--many, many in Sophocles and Aeschylus. The stories about Andromache and Antigone are worth all the women in the Old Testament put together; nay, almost all the women in the Bible. "I have just finished the Children's Bible," wrote Mr. Jowett (Feb. 10, 1872). "I blessed you every time I took the papers up, especially in the Prophets. I have adopted your selection almost entirely, with a slight abridgement, and it is further approved by Mr. Cheyne's authority." These various literary enterprises, undertaken at Mr. Jowett's instance, occupied a great deal of Miss Nightingale's time--more time, as she sometimes said to herself, than could rightly be spared from primary duties; and the time was spent, she added in her self-reproaches, to little purpose. In some respects Mr. Jowett's suggestions to her were not very happy. One cannot elaborate in a consecutive form a Scheme of Theology or a Social Philosophy, even through the medium of essays, in odd hours as a bye-work. So Miss Nightingale soon found, and the failure weighed heavily on her spirits; but Mr. Jowett did not realize how great was the strain upon his friend's faculties involved in her nursing work, nor how much time, effort, and emotion she was devoting, though "out of office," to the complicated problems of Indian administration. We, who have access to her Papers, shall learn the full extent of these preoccupations in later chapters (III. and IV.). But something must first be said of another literary enterprise. To it Miss Nightingale's close study of the Bible and of Plato was entirely relevant. Such studies were, as we shall find in the next chapter, part of the food which sustained her inner life.