VIII + 

Never Wonder + 

Let us strike the keynote again, before pursuing the tune. + 

When she was half a dozen years younger, Louisa had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother one day, by saying тАЬTom, I wonderтАЭтБатАФupon which Mr.┬аGradgrind, who was the person overhearing, stepped forth into the light and said, тАЬLouisa, never wonder!тАЭ + 

Herein lay the spring of the mechanical art and mystery of educating the reason without stooping to the cultivation of the sentiments and affections. Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder. Bring to me, says MтАЩChoakumchild, yonder baby just able to walk, and I will engage that it shall never wonder. + 

Now, besides very many babies just able to walk, there happened to be in Coketown a considerable population of babies who had been walking against time towards the infinite world, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years and more. These portentous infants being alarming creatures to stalk about in any human society, the eighteen denominations incessantly scratched one anotherтАЩs faces and pulled one anotherтАЩs hair by way of agreeing on the steps to be taken for their improvementтБатАФwhich they never did; a surprising circumstance, when the happy adaptation of the means to the end is considered. Still, although they differed in every other particular, conceivable and inconceivable (especially inconceivable), they were pretty well united on the point that these unlucky infants were never to wonder. Body number one, said they must take everything on trust. Body number two, said they must take everything on political economy. Body number three, wrote leaden little books for them, showing how the good grownup baby invariably got to the savings-bank, and the bad grownup baby invariably got transported. Body number four, under dreary pretences of being droll (when it was very melancholy indeed), made the shallowest pretences of concealing pitfalls of knowledge, into which it was the duty of these babies to be smuggled and inveigled. But, all the bodies agreed that they were never to wonder. + 

There was a library in Coketown, to which general access was easy. Mr.┬аGradgrind greatly tormented his mind about what the people read in this library: a point whereon little rivers of tabular statements periodically flowed into the howling ocean of tabular statements, which no diver ever got to any depth in and came up sane. It was a disheartening circumstance, but a melancholy fact, that even these readers persisted in wondering. They wondered about human nature, human passions, human hopes and fears, the struggles, triumphs and defeats, the cares and joys and sorrows, the lives and deaths of common men and women! They sometimes, after fifteen hoursтАЩ work, sat down to read mere fables about men and women, more or less like themselves, and about children, more or less like their own. They took Defoe to their bosoms, instead of Euclid, and seemed to be on the whole more comforted by Goldsmith than by Cocker. Mr.┬аGradgrind was forever working, in print and out of print, at this eccentric sum, and he never could make out how it yielded this unaccountable product. + 

тАЬI am sick of my life, Loo. I, hate it altogether, and I hate everybody except you,тАЭ said the unnatural young Thomas Gradgrind in the hair-cutting chamber at twilight. + 

тАЬYou donтАЩt hate Sissy, Tom?тАЭ + 

тАЬI hate to be obliged to call her Jupe. And she hates me,тАЭ said Tom, moodily. + 

тАЬNo, she does not, Tom, I am sure!тАЭ + 

тАЬShe must,тАЭ said Tom. тАЬShe must just hate and detest the whole set-out of us. TheyтАЩll bother her head off, I think, before they have done with her. Already sheтАЩs getting as pale as wax, and as heavy asтБатАФI am.тАЭ + 

Young Thomas expressed these sentiments sitting astride of a chair before the fire, with his arms on the back, and his sulky face on his arms. His sister sat in the darker corner by the fireside, now looking at him, now looking at the bright sparks as they dropped upon the hearth. + 

тАЬAs to me,тАЭ said Tom, tumbling his hair all manner of ways with his sulky hands, тАЬI am a donkey, thatтАЩs what I am. I am as obstinate as one, I am more stupid than one, I get as much pleasure as one, and I should like to kick like one.тАЭ + 

тАЬNot me, I hope, Tom?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, Loo; I wouldnтАЩt hurt you. I made an exception of you at first. I donтАЩt know what thisтБатАФjolly oldтБатАФJaundiced jail,тАЭ Tom had paused to find a sufficiently complimentary and expressive name for the parental roof, and seemed to relieve his mind for a moment by the strong alliteration of this one, тАЬwould be without you.тАЭ + 

тАЬIndeed, Tom? Do you really and truly say so?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy, of course I do. WhatтАЩs the use of talking about it!тАЭ returned Tom, chafing his face on his coat-sleeve, as if to mortify his flesh, and have it in unison with his spirit. + 

тАЬBecause, Tom,тАЭ said his sister, after silently watching the sparks awhile, тАЬas I get older, and nearer growing up, I often sit wondering here, and think how unfortunate it is for me that I canтАЩt reconcile you to home better than I am able to do. I donтАЩt know what other girls know. I canтАЩt play to you, or sing to you. I canтАЩt talk to you so as to lighten your mind, for I never see any amusing sights or read any amusing books that it would be a pleasure or a relief to you to talk about, when you are tired.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, no more do I. I am as bad as you in that respect; and I am a mule too, which youтАЩre not. If father was determined to make me either a prig or a mule, and I am not a prig, why, it stands to reason, I must be a mule. And so I am,тАЭ said Tom, desperately. + 

тАЬItтАЩs a great pity,тАЭ said Louisa, after another pause, and speaking thoughtfully out of her dark corner: тАЬitтАЩs a great pity, Tom. ItтАЩs very unfortunate for both of us.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh! You,тАЭ said Tom; тАЬyou are a girl, Loo, and a girl comes out of it better than a boy does. I donтАЩt miss anything in you. You are the only pleasure I haveтБатАФyou can brighten even this placeтБатАФand you can always lead me as you like.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou are a dear brother, Tom; and while you think I can do such things, I donтАЩt so much mind knowing better. Though I do know better, Tom, and am very sorry for it.тАЭ She came and kissed him, and went back into her corner again. + 

тАЬI wish I could collect all the Facts we hear so much about,тАЭ said Tom, spitefully setting his teeth, тАЬand all the Figures, and all the people who found them out: and I wish I could put a thousand barrels of gunpowder under them, and blow them all up together! However, when I go to live with old Bounderby, IтАЩll have my revenge.тАЭ + 

тАЬYour revenge, Tom?тАЭ + 

тАЬI mean, IтАЩll enjoy myself a little, and go about and see something, and hear something. IтАЩll recompense myself for the way in which I have been brought up.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut donтАЩt disappoint yourself beforehand, Tom. Mr.┬аBounderby thinks as father thinks, and is a great deal rougher, and not half so kind.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh!тАЭ said Tom, laughing; тАЬI donтАЩt mind that. I shall very well know how to manage and smooth old Bounderby!тАЭ + 

Their shadows were defined upon the wall, but those of the high presses in the room were all blended together on the wall and on the ceiling, as if the brother and sister were overhung by a dark cavern. Or, a fanciful imaginationтБатАФif such treason could have been thereтБатАФmight have made it out to be the shadow of their subject, and of its lowering association with their future. + 

тАЬWhat is your great mode of smoothing and managing, Tom? Is it a secret?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh!тАЭ said Tom, тАЬif it is a secret, itтАЩs not far off. ItтАЩs you. You are his little pet, you are his favourite; heтАЩll do anything for you. When he says to me what I donтАЩt like, I shall say to him, тАШMy sister Loo will be hurt and disappointed, Mr.┬аBounderby. She always used to tell me she was sure you would be easier with me than this.тАЩ ThatтАЩll bring him about, or nothing will.тАЭ + 

After waiting for some answering remark, and getting none, Tom wearily relapsed into the present time, and twined himself yawning round and about the rails of his chair, and rumpled his head more and more, until he suddenly looked up, and asked: + 

тАЬHave you gone to sleep, Loo?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, Tom. I am looking at the fire.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou seem to find more to look at in it than ever I could find,тАЭ said Tom. тАЬAnother of the advantages, I suppose, of being a girl.тАЭ + 

тАЬTom,тАЭ enquired his sister, slowly, and in a curious tone, as if she were reading what she asked in the fire, and it was not quite plainly written there, тАЬdo you look forward with any satisfaction to this change to Mr.┬аBounderbyтАЩs?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy, thereтАЩs one thing to be said of it,тАЭ returned Tom, pushing his chair from him, and standing up; тАЬit will be getting away from home.тАЭ + 

тАЬThere is one thing to be said of it,тАЭ Louisa repeated in her former curious tone; тАЬit will be getting away from home. Yes.тАЭ + 

тАЬNot but what I shall be very unwilling, both to leave you, Loo, and to leave you here. But I must go, you know, whether I like it or not; and I had better go where I can take with me some advantage of your influence, than where I should lose it altogether. DonтАЩt you see?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, Tom.тАЭ + 

The answer was so long in coming, though there was no indecision in it, that Tom went and leaned on the back of her chair, to contemplate the fire which so engrossed her, from her point of view, and see what he could make of it. + 

тАЬExcept that it is a fire,тАЭ said Tom, тАЬit looks to me as stupid and blank as everything else looks. What do you see in it? Not a circus?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt see anything in it, Tom, particularly. But since I have been looking at it, I have been wondering about you and me, grown up.тАЭ + 

тАЬWondering again!тАЭ said Tom. + 

тАЬI have such unmanageable thoughts,тАЭ returned his sister, тАЬthat they will wonder.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen I beg of you, Louisa,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аGradgrind, who had opened the door without being heard, тАЬto do nothing of that description, for goodnessтАЩ sake, you inconsiderate girl, or I shall never hear the last of it from your father. And, Thomas, it is really shameful, with my poor head continually wearing me out, that a boy brought up as you have been, and whose education has cost what yours has, should be found encouraging his sister to wonder, when he knows his father has expressly said that she is not to do it.тАЭ + 

Louisa denied TomтАЩs participation in the offence; but her mother stopped her with the conclusive answer, тАЬLouisa, donтАЩt tell me, in my state of health; for unless you had been encouraged, it is morally and physically impossible that you could have done it.тАЭ + 

тАЬI was encouraged by nothing, mother, but by looking at the red sparks dropping out of the fire, and whitening and dying. It made me think, after all, how short my life would be, and how little I could hope to do in it.тАЭ + 

тАЬNonsense!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аGradgrind, rendered almost energetic. тАЬNonsense! DonтАЩt stand there and tell me such stuff, Louisa, to my face, when you know very well that if it was ever to reach your fatherтАЩs ears I should never hear the last of it. After all the trouble that has been taken with you! After the lectures you have attended, and the experiments you have seen! After I have heard you myself, when the whole of my right side has been benumbed, going on with your master about combustion, and calcination, and calorification, and I may say every kind of ation that could drive a poor invalid distracted, to hear you talking in this absurd way about sparks and ashes! I wish,тАЭ whimpered Mrs.┬аGradgrind, taking a chair, and discharging her strongest point before succumbing under these mere shadows of facts, тАЬyes, I really do wish that I had never had a family, and then you would have known what it was to do without me!тАЭ + 