No More Learning

Dickens was married on the 2d of April, 1836, to Miss Catherine
Hogarth, just a week after he had published the first shilling number
of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club: Edited by Boz. '
The work appeared in book form the next year. Its success was phe-
nomenal, and it brought to its author not only fame but a fixed sum
per annum, which is better. It assured his comfort in the present and
in the future, and it wiped out all the care and troubles of his past.
It was in itself the result of an accident. Messrs. Chapman and Hall,
attracted by the popularity of the Sketches, proposed to their author
a series of monthly articles to illustrate certain pictures of a comic
character by Robert Seymour, an artist in their employment. Dickens
assented, upon the condition that "the plates were to be so modified
that they would arise naturally out of the text. " And so between
them Mr. Pickwick was born, although under the saddest of circum-
stances; for only a single number had appeared when Seymour died
by his own hand. Hablot K. Browne succeeded him, signing the name
of "Phiz"; and with "Boz" was "Phiz" long associated in other
prosperous ventures. Mr. Pickwick is a benevolent, tender-hearted
elderly gentleman, who, as the president of a club organized "for the
purpose of investigating the source of the Hampstead ponds," jour-
neys about England in all directions with three companions, to whom
he acts as guide, philosopher, and friend. He is an amiable old
goose, and his companions are equally verdant and unsophisticated;
but since 1837 they have been as famous as any men in fiction. The
story is a long one, the pages are crowded with incidents and with
characters. It is disconnected, often exaggerated, much of it is as
improbable as it is impossible, but it has made the world laugh for
sixty years now; and it still holds its own unique place in the hearts
of men.
From this period the pen of Dickens was never idle for forty-three
years. 'Pickwick' was succeeded by 'Oliver Twist,' begun in Bent-
ley's Magazine in January, 1837, and printed in book form in 1838.
It is the story of the progress of a parish boy, and it is sad and
serious in its character. The hero was born and brought up in a


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4630
CHARLES DICKENS
workhouse. He was starved and ill-treated; but he always retained
his innocence and his purity of mind. He fell among thieves,- Bill
and Nancy Sykes, Fagin and the Artful Dodger, to whom much pow-
erful description is devoted, but he triumphed in the end. The life
of the very poor and of the very degraded among the people of Eng-
land during the latter end of the first half of the nineteenth century
is admirably portrayed; and for the first time in their existence the
British blackguards of both sexes were exhibited in fiction, clad in
all their instincts of low brutality, and without that glamour of
attractive romance which the earlier writers had given to Jack Shep-
pard, to Jonathan Wild, or to Moll Flanders.
Two dramatic compositions by Dickens, neither of them adding
very much to his reputation, appeared in 1836, to wit:-'The Stran-
ger Gentleman, A Comic Burletta in Three Acts'; and 'The Village
Coquette,' a comic opera in two acts. They were presented upon
the stage towards the close of that year, with fair success.
In 1838 Dickens edited the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, a cele-
brated clown. His share in the composition of this work was com-
paratively small, and consisted of a Preface, dated February of that
year. It was followed by 'Sketches of Young Gentlemen,' and by
'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,' both published in
1839. To this latter he signed his name, Charles Dickens, dropping
from that period the pseudonym of "Boz. " The titular hero is the
son of a poor country gentleman. He makes his own way in the
world as the usher of a Yorkshire school, as an actor in a traveling
troupe, and as the clerk and finally the partner in a prosperous
mercantile house in London. Smike, his pupil; Crummles, his theat-
rical manager; Ninetta Crummles, the Infant Phenomenon of the
company, Newman Noggs, the clerk of his uncle Ralph Nickleby,
the Cheeryble Brothers, his employers, are among the most success-
ful and charming of Dickens's earlier creations. "Mr. Squeers and
his school," he says, << were faint and feeble pictures of an existing
reality, purposely subdued and kept down lest they should be deemed
impossible. " That such establishments ceased to exist in reality in
England after the appearance of 'Nickleby,' is proof enough of the
good his pictures did in this and in many other ways.
In 1840-1841 appeared 'Master Humphrey's Clock,' comprising the
two stories of The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge,' which
were subsequently printed separately. The story of Little Nell, the
gentle, lovable inmate of the Curiosity Shop, is one of the most sad
and tender tales in fiction, and Dickens himself confessed that he
was almost heart-broken when she died. Her path was crossed by
Quilp, a cunning and malicious dwarf of hideous appearance, who
consumed hard-boiled eggs, shells and all, for his breakfast; ate his


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CHARLES DICKENS
4631
prawns with their heads and their tails on, drank scalding hot tea,
and performed so many horrifying acts that one almost doubted that
he was human; and by Christopher Nubbles, a shock-headed, sham-
bling, awkward, devoted lad, the only element of cheerfulness that
ever came into her life. In this book appear Richard Swiveller and
his Marchioness, Sampson and Sarah Brass and Mrs. Jarley, who to
be appreciated must be seen and known, as Dickens has drawn them,
at full length.
Barnaby Rudge was a half-witted lad, who, not knowing what he
did, joined the Gordon rioters-the scenes are laid in the "No
Popery» times of 1779-because he was permitted to carry a flag
and to wear a blue ribbon. The history of that exciting period of
English semi-political, semi-religious excitement is graphically set
down. Prominent figures in the book are Grip the raven, whose cry
was "I'm a devil," "Never say die"; and Miss Dolly Varden, the
blooming daughter of the Clerkenwell locksmith, who has given her
name to the modern feminine costume of the Watteauesque style.
The literary results of Dickens's first visit to the United States, in
1842, when he was thirty years of age, were 'American Notes, for
General Circulation'; published in that year, and containing portions
of 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' which appeared in 1844. His observations in
the 'Notes' upon the new country and its inhabitants gave great
offense to the American people, and were perhaps not in the best
taste. He saw the crude and ridiculous side of his hosts, he empha-
sized their faults, while he paid little attention to their virtues; and
his criticisms and strictures rankled in the sensitive American mind
for many years.
Martin Chuzzlewit, the hero of the novel bearing his name, spent
some time in the western half-settled portion of America, with Mark
Tapley, his light-hearted, optimistic friend and companion. The pic-
tures of the morals and the manners of the men and women with
whom the emigrants were brought into contact were anything but
flattering, and they served to widen the temporary breach between
Dickens and his many admirers in the United States. The English
scenes of 'Chuzzlewit' are very powerfully drawn. Tom and Ruth
Pinch, Pecksniff, Sarah Gamp, and Betsey Prig are among the lead-
ing characters in the work.
In 1843 appeared the 'Christmas Carol,' the first and perhaps the
best of that series of tales of peace and good-will, with which, at
the Christmas time, the name of Dickens is so pleasantly and famil-
iarly associated. It was followed by The Chimes' in 1844, by The
Cricket on the Hearth' in 1845, by The Haunted Man' in 1848, all
the work of Dickens himself; and by other productions written by
Dickens in collaboration with other men. Concerning these holiday


## p. 4632 (#426) ###########################################

4632
CHARLES DICKENS
stories, some unknown writer said in the public press at the time of
Dickens's death:-"He has not only pleased us— - he has softened the
hearts of a whole generation. He made charity fashionable; he
awakened pity in the hearts of sixty millions of people. He made a
whole generation keep Christmas with acts of helpfulness to the
poor; and every barefooted boy and girl in the streets of England
and America to-day fares a little better, gets fewer cuffs and more
pudding, because Charles Dickens wrote. "
In 1846 he produced his 'Pictures from Italy'; 'The Battle of Life,
A Love Story,' and began in periodical form his 'Dealings with the
Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation,'
published in book form in 1847. Here we have the pathetic story of
Little Paul, the tragic fate of Carker, the amusing episode of Jack
Bunsby with his designing widow, and the devotion of Susan Nipper,
Mr. Toots, Captain Cuttle, and Sol Gills to the gentle, patient, lov-
able Florence.
On the 'Personal History of David Copperfield,' published in 1850,
and of Dickens's share in its plot, something has already been said
here. It is perhaps the most popular of all his productions, con-
taining as it does Mr. Dick, the Peggottys, the Micawbers, the Heeps,
Betsey Trotwood, Steerforth, Tommy Traddles, Dora, Agnes, and
Little Em'ly, in all of whom the world has been so deeply interested
for so many years.
'A Child's History of England' and 'Bleak House' saw the light
in 1853. The romance was written as a protest and a warning
against the law's delays, as exhibited in the Court of Chancery; and
it contains the tragedy of Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, and the
short but touching story of Poor Jo.
'Hard Times,' a tale in one volume, was printed in 1854. It
introduces the Gradgrind family.
'Little Dorrit' appeared in 1857. In this book he returns to the
Debtor's Prison of Micawber and of his own father. Little Dorrit
herself was "the child of the Marshalsea," in which she was born
and brought up; and the whole story is an appeal against the injus-
tice of depriving of personal liberty those who cannot pay their
bills, or meet their notes, however small. Its prominent characters
are the Clennams, mother and son, the Meagleses, Flintwinch, Sir
Decimus Tite Barnacle, Rigaud and Little Cavalletto.
'A Tale of Two Cities,' a remarkable departure for Dickens, and
unlike any of his other works, was the book of the year 1859. It is
conceded, even by those who are not counted among the admirers of
its author, to be a most vivid and correct picture of Paris during the
time of the Revolution, when the guillotine was the king of France.
Its central figure, Sydney Carton, one of the most heroic characters


## p. 4633 (#427) ###########################################

CHARLES DICKENS
4633
in romance, gives his life to restore his friend to the girl whom they
both love.
< The Uncommercial Traveller,' a number of sketches and stories
originally published in his weekly journal All the Year Round, ap-
peared in 1860. They were supplemented in 1868 by another volume
bearing the same title, and containing eleven other papers collected
from the same periodical.
'Great Expectations,' 1861, like 'Copperfield,' is the story of a boy's
childhood told by the boy himself, but by a boy with feelings, sen-
timents, and experiences very different from those of the earlier
work. The plot is not altogether a cheerful one, but many of the
characters are original and charming; notably Joe Gargery, Jaggles,
Wemmick, the exceedingly eccentric Miss Havisham, and the very
amiable and simple Biddy.
'Somebody's Luggage,' 1862; 'Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings,' 1863;
'Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy,' 1864; Dr. Marigold's Prescription,' 1865;
'Mugby Junction,' 1866; and 'No Thoroughfare,' 1867,- Christmas
stories, all of them,- were written by Dickens in collaboration with
other writers.
'Our Mutual Friend,' the last completed work of Dickens, was
printed in 1865. Mr. Boffin, the Golden Dustman with the great
heart, Silas Wegg, Mr. Venus, the Riderhoods, Jenny Wren, the
Podsnaps, the Veneerings, Betty Higden, Mrs. Wilfer, and the "Boo-
fer Lady," are as fresh and as original as are any of his creations,
and show no trace of the coming disaster.
Before the completion of 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' Dickens
died at his home, Gadshill Place, literally in harness, and without
warning, on the 9th of June, 1870.
But six numbers of this last work appeared, in periodical form. .
Its author left no notes of what was to follow, and the Mystery has
never been solved. Mr. Charles Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, however,
in a private letter to Mr. Augustin Daly of New York, who had pro-
posed to dramatize the tale, gave some general outline of the scheme
for Edwin Drood. ' "The titular character," he said, «< was never to
reappear, he having been murdered by Jasper. The girl Rosa, not
having been really attached to Edwin, was not to lament his loss
very long, and was, I believe, to admit the sailor, Mr. Tartar, to
supply his place. It was intended that Jasper should urge on the
search after Edwin, and the pursuit of the murderer, thus endeavor-
ing to divert suspicion from himself, the real murderer.
As to any-
thing further, it would be purely conjectural. "
Besides this immense amount of admirable work, Dickens founded,
conducted, and edited two successful periodicals, Household Words,
established in March 1850, and followed by All the Year Round,.


## p. 4634 (#428) ###########################################

4634
CHARLES DICKENS
beginning in April 1859. To these he contributed many sketches and
stories. He began public readings in London in 1858; and con-
tinued them with great profit to himself, and with great satisfaction
to immense audiences, for upwards of twelve years. He appeared in
all the leading cities of Great Britain; and he was enormously popu-
lar as a reader in America during his second and last visit in 1868.
As an after-dinner and occasional speaker Dickens was rarely
equaled; and as an actor upon the amateur stage, in plays of his
own composition, he was inimitable.
Of his attempts at verse, 'The Ivy Green' is the only one that
is held in remembrance.
A strong argument in favor of what may be called "the staying
qualities of Dickens is the fact that his characters, even in a muti-
lated, unsatisfactory form, have held the stage for half a century or
more, and still have power to attract and move great audiences,
wherever is spoken the language in which he wrote. The dramatiza-
tion of the novel is universally and justly regarded as the most
ephemeral and worthless of dramatic production; and the novels of
Dickens, on account of their length, of the great number of figures
he introduces, of the variety and occasional exaggeration of his dia-
logues and his situations, have been peculiarly difficult of adaptation
to theatrical purposes. Nevertheless the world laughed and cried
over Micawber, Captain Cuttle, Dan'l Peggotty, and Caleb Plummer,
behind the footlights, years after Dolly Spanker, Aminadab Sleek,
Timothy Toodles, Alfred Evelyn, and Geoffrey Dalk, their contempo-
raries in the standard and legitimate drama, created solely and par-
ticularly for dramatic representation, were absolutely forgotten. And
Sir Henry Irving, sixty years after the production of 'Pickwick,' drew
great crowds to see his Alfred Jingle, while that picturesque and
ingenious swindler Robert Macaire, Jingle's once famous and familiar
confrère in plausible rascality, was never seen on the boards, except
as he was burlesqued and caricatured in comic opera.
It is pretty safe to say-and not in a Pickwickian sense that
Pecksniff will live almost as long as hypocrisy lasts; that Heep will
not be forgotten while mock humility exists; that Mr. Dick will go
down to posterity arm-in-arm with Charles the First, whom he could
not avoid in his memorial; that Barkis will be quoted until men cease
to be willin'. And so long as cheap, rough coats cover faith, charity,
and honest hearts, the world will remember that Captain Cuttle and
the Peggottys were so clad.
Раш
Hilto
m
-


## p. 4635 (#429) ###########################################

CHARLES DICKENS
4635
THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
From Hard Times'
"Now
ow what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls
nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant
nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only
form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else
will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on
which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on
which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir! "
The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-
room, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observa-
tions by underscoring every sentence with a line on the school-
master's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's
square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base,
while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves,
overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the
speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The em-
phasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible,
dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's
hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of
firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with
knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely
warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's
obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders,-
nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with
an unaccommodating grasp like a stubborn fact, as it was,-all
helped the emphasis.
"In this life we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but
Facts! "
The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown per-
son present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the in-
clined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order,
ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until
they were full to the brim.
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, sir,


## p. 4636 (#430) ###########################################

4636
CHARLES DICKENS
- peremptorily Thomas,-Thomas 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, non-existent persons), but into the head of
Thomas Gradgrind-no, sir!
In such terms Mr. Gradgrind always mentally introduced him-
self, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the pub-
lic in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words
"boys and girls," for "sir," 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.
"Girl number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing
with his square forefinger; "I don't know that girl. Who is that
girl? "
"Sissy Jupe, sir," explained number twenty, blushing, stand-
ing up, and courtesying.
"Sissy is not a name," said Mr. Gradgrind. "Don't call
yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia. "
"It's father as calls me Sissy, sir," returned the young girl
in a trembling voice, and with another courtesy.
"Then he has no business to do it," said Mr. Gradgrind.
"Tell him he mustn't. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is
your father? »
"He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir. "
Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable call-
ing with his hand.
"We don't want to know anything about that here. You
mustn't tell us about that here. Your father breaks horses,
don't he? "
"If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do
break horses in the ring, sir. "


## p. 4637 (#431) ###########################################

CHARLES DICKENS
4637
"You mustn't tell us about the ring here. Very well, then.
Describe your father as a horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses,
I dare say? "
"Oh yes, sir. "
"Very well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and
horsebreaker. Give me your definition of a horse. "
(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand. )
«< Girl number twenty unable to define a horse! " said Mr.
Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers.
"Girl number twenty possessed of no facts in reference to one
of the commonest of animals! Some boy's definition of a horse.
Bitzer, yours. "
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 begin-
ning 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 color 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 color 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 them-
selves, 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.
"Bitzer," said Thomas Gradgrind.
"Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth; namely, twenty-
four grinders, four eye-teeth, 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
mouth. " Thus (and much more) Bitzer.
by marks in
horse.
"
"Your definition of a


## p. 4638 (#432) ###########################################

4638
CHARLES DICKENS
"Now, girl number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, "you know
what a horse is. "
She courtesied 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 antennæ 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 people's 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 cus-
tomer. 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 Commis-
sioners should reign upon earth.
"Very well," said this gentleman, briskly smiling, and fold-
ing his arms. "That's a horse. Now, let me ask you girls
and boys, Would you paper a room with representations of
horses ? »
After a pause one-half of the children cried in chorus, "Yes,
sir! " Upon which the other half, seeing in the gentleman's face
that Yes was wrong, cried out in chorus, "No, sir! "
custom is in these examinations.
as the
"Of course, No. Why wouldn't you? "
A pause.
One corpulent slow boy, with a wheezy manner of
breathing, ventured the answer, Because he wouldn't paper a
room at all, but would paint it.
"You must paper it," said the gentleman, rather warmly.
"You must paper it," said Thomas Gradgrind, "whether you
like it or not. Don't tell us you wouldn't paper it. What do
you mean, boy? "


## p. 4639 (#433) ###########################################

CHARLES DICKENS
4639
"I'll explain to you, then," said the gentleman, after another
and dismal pause, "why you wouldn't paper a room with repre-
sentations of horses. Do you ever see horses walking up and
down the sides of rooms in reality-in fact?
- in fact? Do you? "
"Yes, sir! " from one-half. "No, sir! " from the other.
"Of course no," said the gentleman, with an indignant look
at the wrong half. "Why, then, you are not to see anywhere
what you don't see in fact; you are not to have anywhere what
you don't have in fact. What is called Taste is only another
name for Fact. "
Thomas Gradgrind nodded his approbation.
"This is a new principle, a discovery, a great discovery," said
the gentleman. "Now, I'll try you again.
"Now, I'll try you again. Suppose you were
going to carpet a room. Would you use a carpet having a rep-
resentation of flowers upon it? "
There being a general conviction by this time that "No, sir! »
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.
"Girl number twenty," said the gentleman, smiling in the
calm strength of knowledge.
Sissy blushed, and stood up.
"So you would carpet your room or your husband's room,
if you were
a grown woman, and had a husband-with repre-
sentations of flowers, would you? " said the gentleman. "Why
would you? "
"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? "
"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 would fancy-
>>>
"Ay, ay, ay! But you mustn't fancy," cried the gentleman,
quite elated by coming so happily to his point. "That's it!
are never to fancy. "
You
"You are not, Cecilia Jupe," Thomas Gradgrind solemnly
repeated, "to do anything of that kind. "
And "Fact, fact,
"Fact, fact, fact! " said the gentleman.
fact! " repeated Thomas Gradgrind.


## p. 4640 (#434) ###########################################

4640
CHARLES DICKENS
"You are to be in all things regulated and governed," said
the gentleman, "by 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 orna-
ment what would be a contradiction in fact. You don't walk
upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers
in carpets.
You don't 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," said
the gentleman, "for all these purposes, combinations and modi-
fications (in primary colors) of mathematical figures, which are
susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is the new discov-
ery. This is fact. This is taste. "
The girl courtesied, and sat down. She was very young, and
she looked as if she were frightened by the matter-of-fact pros-
pect the world afforded.
"Now, if Mr. M'Choakumchild," said the gentleman, "will
proceed to give his first lesson here, Mr. Gradgrind, I shall be
happy, at your request, to observe his mode of procedure. "
Mr. Gradgrind was much obliged. "Mr. M'Choakumchild, we
only wait for you.
So Mr. M'Choakumchild 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 prin-
ciples, 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
leveling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the
ends of his ten chilled fingers. He had worked his stony way
into her Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council's 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 Water Sheds of all the world (whatever
they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the


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CHARLES DICKENS
4641
names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions,
manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their bounda-
ries and bearings on the two-and-thirty points of the compass.
Ah, rather overdone, M'Choakumchild. If he had only learned a
little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much
more!
He went to work in this preparatory lesson not unlike Mor-
giana in the 'Forty Thieves': looking into all the vessels ranged
before him, one after another, to see what they contained. Say,
good M'Choakumchild. 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 within-or some-
times only maim him and distort him!
THE BOY AT MUGBY
From Mugby Junction'
AM the boy at Mugby. That's about what I am.
I
You don't know what I mean? What a pity! But I think
you do.
I think you must. Look here. I am the Boy at
what is called The Refreshment Room at Mugby Junction, and
what's proudest boast is, that it never yet refreshed a mortal
being.
Up in a corner of the Down Refreshment Room at Mugby
Junction, in the height of twenty-seven cross draughts (I've often
counted 'em while they brush the First Class hair twenty-seven
ways), behind the bottles, among the glasses, bounded on the
nor'west by the beer, stood pretty far to the right of a metallic
object that's at times the tea-urn and at times the soup-tureen,
according to the nature of the last twang imparted to its contents,
which are the same groundwork, fended off from the traveler by
a barrier of stale sponge-cakes erected atop of the counter, and
lastly exposed sideways to the glare of Our Missis's eye-you
ask a Boy so sitiwated, next time you stop in a hurry at Mugby,
for anything to drink; you take particular notice that he'll try
to seem not to hear you, that he'll appear in a absent manner
to survey the Line through a transparent medium composed of
your head and body, and that he won't serve you as long as you
can possibly bear it.
That's me.
VIII-201


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4642
CHARLES DICKENS
What a lark it is! We are the Model Establishment, we are,
at Mugby. Other Refreshment Rooms send their imperfect young
ladies up to be finished off by our Missis. For some of the
young ladies, when they're new to the business, come into it
mild! Ah! Our Missis, she soon takes that out of 'em. Why,
I originally come into the business meek myself. But Our
Missis, she soon took that out of me.
What a delightful lark it is! I look upon us Refreshmenters
as ockipying the only proudly independent footing on the Line.
There's Papers, for instance,- my honorable friend, if he will
allow me to call him so,-him as belongs to Smith's bookstall.
Why, he no more dares to be up to our Refreshmenting games
than he dares to jump atop of a locomotive with her steam at
full pressure, and cut away upon her alone, driving himself, at
limited-mail speed. Papers, he'd get his head punched at every
compartment, first, second, and third, the whole length of a
train, if he was to ventur' to imitate my demeanor. It's the
same with the porters, the same with the guards, the same with
the ticket clerks, the same the whole way up to the secretary,
traffic manager, or very chairman. There ain't a one among 'em
on the nobly independent footing we are. Did you ever catch
one of them, when you wanted anything of him, making a sys-
tem of surveying the Line through a transparent medium com-
posed of your head and body? I should hope not.
You should see our Bandolining Room at Mugby Junction.
It's led to by the door behind the counter, which you'll notice
usually stands ajar, and it's the room where Our Missis and our
young ladies Bandolines their hair. You should see 'em at it,
betwixt trains, Bandolining away, as if they was anointing them-
selves for the combat. When you're telegraphed you should see
their noses all agoing up with scorn, as if it was a part of the
working of the same Cooke and Wheatstone electrical machinery.
You should hear Our Missis give the word, "Here comes the
Beast to be Fed! " and then you should see 'em indignantly
skipping across the Line, from the Up to the Down, or Wicer
Warsaw, and begin to pitch the stale pastry into the plates, and
chuck the sawdust sangwiches under the glass covers, and get
out the-ha, ha, ha! - the Sherry,-O my eye, my eye! - for
your Refreshment.
It's only in the Isle of the Brave and Land of the Free (by
which of course I mean to say Britannia) that Refreshmenting


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CHARLES DICKENS
4643
is so effective, so 'olesome, so constitutional a check upon the
public. There was a foreigner, which having politely, with his
hat off, beseeched our young ladies and Our Missis for "a leetel
gloss hoff prarndee," and having had the Line surveyed through
him by all, and no other acknowledgment, was a-proceeding at
last to help himself, as seems to be the custom in his own coun-
try, when Our Missis, with her hair almost a-coming un-Bando-
lined with rage, and her eyes omitting sparks, flew at him,
cotched the decanter out of his hand, and said, "Put it down!
I won't allow that! " The foreigner turned pale, stepped back
with his arms stretched out in front of him, his hands clasped,
and his shoulders riz, and exclaimed:-"Ah! Is it possible, this!
That these disdaineous females and this ferocious old woman are
placed here by the administration, not only to empoison the
voyagers, but to affront them! Great Heaven! How arrives
it? The English people. Or is he then a slave? Or idiot? "
Another time a merry, wide-awake American gent had tried the
sawdust and spit it out, and had tried the Sherry and spit that
out, and had tried in vain to sustain exhausted natur' upon But-
ter-Scotch, and had been rather extra Bandolined and Line-sur-
veyed through, when as the bell was ringing and he paid Our
Missis, he says, very loud and good-tempered:-"I tell Yew what
'tis, ma'arm. I la'af. Theer! I la'af. I Dew. I oughter ha'
seen most things, for I hail from the Onlimited side of the
Atlantic Ocean, and I haive traveled right slick over the Limited,
head on through Jeerusalemm and the East, and likeways France
and Italy Europe Old World, and am now upon the track to the
Chief Europian Village; but such an Institution as Yew, and
Yewer young ladies, and Yewer fixin's solid and liquid, afore
the glorious Tarnal I never did see yet! And if I hain't found
the eighth wonder of monarchical Creation, in finding Yew, and
Yewer young ladies, and Yewer fixin's solid and liquid, all as
aforesaid, established in a country where the people air not abso-
lute Loo-naticks, I am Extra Double Darned with a Nip and
Frizzle to the innermostest grit! Wheerfur - Theer! I la'af!
I Dew, ma'arm. I la'af! " And so he went, stamping and shak-
ing his sides, along the platform all the way to his own com-
partment.
I think it was her standing up agin the Foreigner as give
Our Missis the idea of going over to France, and droring a com-
parison betwixt Refreshmenting as followed among the frog-eaters


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4644
CHARLES DICKENS
and Refreshmenting as triumphant in the Isle of the Brave
and Land of the Free (by which of course I mean to say agin,
Britannia). Our young ladies, Miss Whiff, Miss Piff, and Mrs.
Sniff, was unanimous opposed to her going: for, as they says to
Our Missis one and all, it is well beknown to the hends of the
herth as no other nation except Britain has a idea of anythink,
but above all of business. Why then should you tire yourself to
prove what is a'ready proved? Our Missis, however (being a
teazer at all pints), stood out grim obstinate, and got a return
pass by Southeastern Tidal, to go right through, if such should
be her dispositions, to Marseilles.
Sniff is husband to Mrs. Sniff, and is a regular insignificant
cove. He looks arter the sawdust department in a back room,
and is sometimes, when we are very hard put to it, let behind
the counter with a corkscrew; but never when it can be helped,
his demeanor towards the public being disgusting servile. How
Mrs. Sniff ever come so far to lower herself as to marry him, I
don't know; but I suppose he does, and I should think he wished
he didn't, for he leads a awful life. Mrs. Sniff couldn't be
much harder with him if he was public. Similarly, Miss Whiff
and Miss Piff, taking the tone of Mrs. Sniff, they shoulder Sniff
about when he is let in with a corkscrew, and they whisk things.
out of his hands when in his servility he is a-going to let the
public have 'em, and they snap him up when in the crawling
baseness of his spirit he is a-going to answer a public question,
and they drore more tears into his eyes than ever the mustard
does, which he all day long lays on to the sawdust. (But it ain't
strong. ) Once when Sniff had the repulsiveness to reach across
to get the milkpot to hand over for a baby, I see Our Missis in
her rage catch him by both his shoulders, and spin him out into
the Bandolining Room.
But Mrs. Sniff-how different! She's the one! She's the
one as you'll notice to be always looking another away from you
when you look at her. She's the one with the small waist
buckled in tight in front, and with the lace cuffs at her wrists,
which she puts on the edge of the counter before her, and stands
a-smoothing while the public foams. This smoothing the cuffs
and looking another way while the public foams is the last
accomplishment taught to the young ladies as come to Mugby
to be finished by Our Missis; and it's always taught by Mrs.
Sniff.


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CHARLES DICKENS
4645
When Our Missis went away upon her journey, Mrs. Sniff
was left in charge. She did hold the public in check most beau-
tiful! In all my time, I never see half so many cups of tea
given without milk to people as wanted it with, nor half so
many cups of tea with milk given to people as wanted it with-
When foaming ensued, Mrs. Sniff would say, "Then you'd
better settle it among yourselves, and change with one another. "
It was a most highly delicious lark. I enjoyed the Refreshment-
ing business more than ever, and was so glad I had tock to it
when young.
out.
Our Missis returned. It got circulated among the young
ladies, and it, as it might be, penetrated to me through the crev-
ices of the Bandolining Room, that she had Orrors to reveal, if
revelations so contemptible could be dignified with the name.
Agitation become weakened. Excitement was up in the stirrups.
Expectation stood a-tiptoe. At length it was put forth that on
our slackest evening in the week, and at our slackest time of
that evening betwixt trains, Our Missis would give her views
of foreign Refreshmenting, in the Bandolining Room.
It was arranged tasteful for the purpose.