The Origin of Evil, in particular, held no perplexities for Miss
Nightingale. 'We cannot conceive,' she remarks, 'that Omnipotent
Righteousness would find satisfaction in solitary existence.'
This being, so, the only question remaining to be asked is: 'What
beings should we then conceive that God would create?' Now, He
cannot create perfect beings, 'since, essentially, perfection is
one'; if He did so, He would only be adding to Himself. Thus the
conclusion is obvious: He must create imperfect ones. Omnipotent
Righteousness, faced by the intolerable impasse of a solitary
existence, finds itself bound by the very nature of the cause, to
create the hospitals at Scutari. Whether this argument would have
satisfied the artisans was never discovered, for only a very few
copies of the book were printed for private circulation. One copy
was sent to Mr. Mill, who acknowledged it in an extremely polite
letter. He felt himself obliged, however, to confess that he had
not been altogether convinced by Miss Nightingale's proof of the
existence of God. Miss Nightingale was surprised and mortified;
she had thought better of Mr. Mill; for surely her proof of the
existence of God could hardly be improved upon. 'A law,' she had
pointed out, 'implies a lawgiver.' Now the Universe is full of
laws--the law of gravitation, the law of the excluded middle, and
many others; hence it follows that the Universe has a law-giver--
and what would Mr.
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