I send you a locket with Ella’s miniature, which I hope will please you.
AT HOME AND AT WORK.
1866-1872.
“Life is meant for work, and not for pleasure.” (August 29, 1866.)
[1866].
THIS year, which brought such important changes to the political life of Germany, was also in many ways full of sorrow and trouble to the Princess, and the hard and painful struggle through which Germany passed affected her very nearly.
During the early part of the year, the new palace was completed, and in it the Princess had the satisfaction of seeing her wishes realized, and of feeling both comfortable and “at home.” She was also able during this new year to extend the field of her practical usefulness.
Princess Alice attended some very interesting lectures on the necessity of providing special asylums for poor idiots, delivered by a very clever and enterprising “orthodox” clergyman from the Odenwald. She took up the idea most warmly, and determined to found such an institution herself, but in doing this found herself face to face with very serious difficulties. The lecturer and those who sided with him wished that any institution of this kind should bear a strictly religious stamp. The Princess did not agree in this view. She wished to separate the religious from the practical part of the work. She wished people to feel, that they were bound to help to alleviate sickness and suffering (in whatever form) out of mere love to their fellow-creatures, and not only as the fulfilment of a religious duty. While the Princess always acknowledged the value of religious motives in carrying out works of charity, she felt strongly, in this particular case, that the treatment of idiots should be left to the medical profession, without any foreign interference.