II + 

Murdering the Innocents + 

Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sirтБатАФperemptorily ThomasтБатАФThomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic. You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all supposititious, nonexistent persons), but into the head of Thomas GradgrindтБатАФno, sir! + 

In such terms Mr.┬аGradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words тАЬboys and girls,тАЭ for тАЬsir,тАЭ Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts. + 

Indeed, as he eagerly sparkled at them from the cellarage before mentioned, he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away. + 

тАЬGirl number twenty,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, тАЬI donтАЩt know that girl. Who is that girl?тАЭ + 

тАЬSissy Jupe, sir,тАЭ explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying. + 

тАЬSissy is not a name,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind. тАЬDonтАЩt call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.тАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs father as calls me Sissy, sir,тАЭ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey. + 

тАЬThen he has no business to do it,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind. тАЬTell him he mustnтАЩt. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.тАЭ + 

Mr.┬аGradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand. + 

тАЬWe donтАЩt want to know anything about that, here. You mustnтАЩt tell us about that, here. Your father breaks horses, donтАЩt he?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, sir.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou mustnтАЩt tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I dare say?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh yes, sir.тАЭ + 

тАЬVery well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and horsebreaker. Give me your definition of a horse.тАЭ + 

(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) + 

тАЬGirl number twenty unable to define a horse!тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. тАЬGirl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boyтАЩs definition of a horse. Bitzer, yours.тАЭ + 

The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on Bitzer, perhaps because he chanced to sit in the same ray of sunlight which, darting in at one of the bare windows of the intensely whitewashed room, irradiated Sissy. For, the boys and girls sat on the face of the inclined plane in two compact bodies, divided up the centre by a narrow interval; and Sissy, being at the corner of a row on the sunny side, came in for the beginning of a sunbeam, of which Bitzer, being at the corner of a row on the other side, a few rows in advance, caught the end. But, whereas the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive a deeper and more lustrous colour from the sun, when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the selfsame rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever possessed. His cold eyes would hardly have been eyes, but for the short ends of lashes which, by bringing them into immediate contrast with something paler than themselves, expressed their form. His short-cropped hair might have been a mere continuation of the sandy freckles on his forehead and face. His skin was so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white. + 

тАЬBitzer,тАЭ said Thomas Gradgrind. тАЬYour definition of a horse.тАЭ + 

тАЬQuadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eyeteeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.тАЭ Thus (and much more) Bitzer. + 

тАЬNow girl number twenty,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind. тАЬYou know what a horse is.тАЭ + 

She curtseyed again, and would have blushed deeper, if she could have blushed deeper than she had blushed all this time. Bitzer, after rapidly blinking at Thomas Gradgrind with both eyes at once, and so catching the light upon his quivering ends of lashes that they looked like the antenn├ж of busy insects, put his knuckles to his freckled forehead, and sat down again. + 

The third gentleman now stepped forth. A mighty man at cutting and drying, he was; a government officer; in his way (and in most other peopleтАЩs too), a professed pugilist; always in training, always with a system to force down the general throat like a bolus, always to be heard of at the bar of his little public-office, ready to fight all England. To continue in fistic phraseology, he had a genius for coming up to the scratch, wherever and whatever it was, and proving himself an ugly customer. He would go in and damage any subject whatever with his right, follow up with his left, stop, exchange, counter, bore his opponent (he always fought All England) to the ropes, and fall upon him neatly. He was certain to knock the wind out of common sense, and render that unlucky adversary deaf to the call of time. And he had it in charge from high authority to bring about the great public-office Millennium, when Commissioners should reign upon earth. + 

тАЬVery well,тАЭ said this gentleman, briskly smiling, and folding his arms. тАЬThatтАЩs a horse. Now, let me ask you girls and boys, Would you paper a room with representations of horses?тАЭ + 

After a pause, one half of the children cried in chorus, тАЬYes, sir!тАЭ Upon which the other half, seeing in the gentlemanтАЩs face that Yes was wrong, cried out in chorus, тАЬNo, sir!тАЭтБатАФas the custom is, in these examinations. + 

тАЬOf course, No. Why wouldnтАЩt you?тАЭ + 

A pause. One corpulent slow boy, with a wheezy manner of breathing, ventured the answer, Because he wouldnтАЩt paper a room at all, but would paint it. + 

тАЬYou must paper it,тАЭ said the gentleman, rather warmly. + 

тАЬYou must paper it,тАЭ said Thomas Gradgrind, тАЬwhether you like it or not. DonтАЩt tell us you wouldnтАЩt paper it. What do you mean, boy?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩll explain to you, then,тАЭ said the gentleman, after another and a dismal pause, тАЬwhy you wouldnтАЩt paper a room with representations of horses. Do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms in realityтБатАФin fact? Do you?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, sir!тАЭ from one half. тАЬNo, sir!тАЭ from the other. + 

тАЬOf course no,тАЭ said the gentleman, with an indignant look at the wrong half. тАЬWhy, then, you are not to see anywhere, what you donтАЩt see in fact; you are not to have anywhere, what you donтАЩt have in fact. What is called Taste, is only another name for Fact.тАЭ Thomas Gradgrind nodded his approbation. + 

тАЬThis is a new principle, a discovery, a great discovery,тАЭ said the gentleman. тАЬNow, IтАЩll try you again. Suppose you were going to carpet a room. Would you use a carpet having a representation of flowers upon it?тАЭ + 

There being a general conviction by this time that тАЬNo, sir!тАЭ was always the right answer to this gentleman, the chorus of No was very strong. Only a few feeble stragglers said Yes: among them Sissy Jupe. + 

тАЬGirl number twenty,тАЭ said the gentleman, smiling in the calm strength of knowledge. + 

Sissy blushed, and stood up. + 

тАЬSo you would carpet your roomтБатАФor your husbandтАЩs room, if you were a grown woman, and had a husbandтБатАФwith representations of flowers, would you?тАЭ said the gentleman. тАЬWhy would you?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you please, sir, I am very fond of flowers,тАЭ returned the girl. + 

тАЬAnd is that why you would put tables and chairs upon them, and have people walking over them with heavy boots?тАЭ + 

тАЬIt wouldnтАЩt hurt them, sir. They wouldnтАЩt crush and wither, if you please, sir. They would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant, and I would fancyтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬAy, ay, ay! But you mustnтАЩt fancy,тАЭ cried the gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point. тАЬThatтАЩs it! You are never to fancy.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou are not, Cecilia Jupe,тАЭ Thomas Gradgrind solemnly repeated, тАЬto do anything of that kind.тАЭ + 

тАЬFact, fact, fact!тАЭ said the gentleman. And тАЬFact, fact, fact!тАЭ repeated Thomas Gradgrind. + 

тАЬYou are to be in all things regulated and governed,тАЭ said the gentleman, тАЬby fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You donтАЩt walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You donтАЩt find that foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery; you cannot be permitted to paint foreign birds and butterflies upon your crockery. You never meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls; you must not have quadrupeds represented upon walls. You must use,тАЭ said the gentleman, тАЬfor all these purposes, combinations and modifications (in primary colours) of mathematical figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is the new discovery. This is fact. This is taste.тАЭ + 

The girl curtseyed, and sat down. She was very young, and she looked as if she were frightened by the matter-of-fact prospect the world afforded. + 

тАЬNow, if Mr.┬аMтАЩChoakumchild,тАЭ said the gentleman, тАЬwill proceed to give his first lesson here, Mr.┬аGradgrind, I shall be happy, at your request, to observe his mode of procedure.тАЭ + 

Mr.┬аGradgrind was much obliged. тАЬMr.┬аMтАЩChoakumchild, we only wait for you.тАЭ + 

So, Mr.┬аMтАЩChoakumchild began in his best manner. He and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters, had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. He had been put through an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of head-breaking questions. Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and levelling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers. He had worked his stony way into Her MajestyтАЩs most Honourable Privy CouncilтАЩs Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin, and Greek. He knew all about all the watersheds of all the world (whatever they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions, manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the compass. Ah, rather overdone, MтАЩChoakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! + 

He went to work in this preparatory lesson, not unlike Morgiana in the Forty Thieves: looking into all the vessels ranged before him, one after another, to see what they contained. Say, good MтАЩChoakumchild. When from thy boiling store, thou shalt fill each jar brim full by-and-by, dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking withinтБатАФor sometimes only maim him and distort him! + 