"So you would carpet your room with representations of
flowers, would you?" said the gentleman. "Why?"
"If you please, sir, I am very fond of flowers," returned
the girl.
"And is that why you would put tables and chairs upon
them and have people walking over them with heavy
boots?" 5
"It wouldn't hurt them, sir. They wouldn't crush and,
wither, if you please, sir. They would be the pictures of
what was very pretty and pleasant, and I fancy--"
"Aye, aye, aye! But you mustn't fancy," cried the
gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point. 10
"That's it! You are never to fancy."
"You are not, Cecilia Jupe," Thomas Gradgrind solemnly
repeated, "to do anything of that kind."
"You are to be in all things regulated and governed,"
said the gentleman, "by Fact. You must discard the word 15
'fancy' altogether. You have nothing to do with it.
You don't walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed
to walk upon flowers in carpets. You never meet with
quadrupeds going up and down the walls; you must not
have quadrupeds represented upon the walls. You must 20
use," said the gentleman, "for all these purposes, combinations
and modifications (in primary colors) of mathematical
figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration.
This is the new discovery. This is Fact. This
is taste." 25
--_Hard Times._
1. Make a list of adjectives that fit the character
of Gradgrind.
2. Does Dickens agree with Gradgrind's ideas of
teaching? Prove your answer. Define irony; sarcasm.
Does either of these words apply to Dickens's
presentation of Gradgrind?
3. What do you think of Gradgrind's theories? How
far do you agree with him? In what do you disagree?
THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE,
OR THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS SHAY"