The Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement refers to a group of church members well up in the hierarchy of the Church of England who essentially were working toward a potential reconciliation of Catholicism and Protestantism since, they claimed, the Anglican Church had both suffered and gained as a result of breaking free from the Vatican. The Church of England is the “she” mentioned in this metaphor-laced description of the issue:
“…she had been under an eclipse since the Reformation; in fact, since she had begun to exist. She had, it is true, escaped the corruptions of Rome; but she had become enslaved by the secular power, and degraded by the false doctrines of Protestantism.”
John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman published Tracts for the Times which is marked as the commencement of the Oxford Movement. The Oxford Movement would continue to be an influential force in Victorian times until the sudden conversion of Newman to Catholicism which brought about its death knell:
“He was a child of the Romantic Revival, a creature of emotion and of memory, a dreamer whose secret spirit dwelt apart in delectable mountains, an artist whose subtle senses caught, like a shower in the sunshine, the impalpable rainbow of the immaterial world.”
The Nightingale Legacy
Even most people familiar with the name Florence Nightingale usually fail to appreciate just exactly what her true legacy was. The truth is that she basically single-handedly completely altered the entire public concept of nursing. The distinction between what it was and what it would become is perfectly situated in the metaphorical image she uses to describe her the reaction of her parents upon being told her ambition was to become a nurse:
“It was as if I had wanted to be a kitchen-maid.”
“The Bison”
“The Bison” is the nickname of Lord Panmure, British Secretary of State at the time of the Crimean War. His nickname was well-earned and rarely tested. Until a tenacious young woman with a zealous obsession to pursue her career of nursing came up against him:
“During the interview, Miss Nightingale made an important discovery: she found that ‘the Bison was bullyable’–the hide was the hide of a Mexican buffalo, but the spirit was the spirit of an Alderney calf. And there was one thing above all others which the huge creature dreaded–an appeal to public opinion.”
General Charles George Gordon
General Gordon had been honored for performing bravely during the Crimean War, but the higher he rose in rank, the less capable he seemed to become. The author attributes this to a resistance to bureaucratic restrictions, but a letter to his sister suggests a more fatalistic spiritual philosophy working behind the scenes of his conscious mind:
“For some wise design, God turns events one way or another, whether man likes it or not, as a man driving a horse turns it to right or left without consideration as to whether the horse likes that way or not. To be happy, a man must be like a well-broken, willing horse, ready for anything. Events will go as God likes.”
