Philosophical — Hard Times

"‘Bitzer,’ said Mr. Gradgrind, broken down, and miserably submissive to him, ‘have you a heart?’ ‘The circulation, sir,’ returned Bitzer, smiling at the oddity of the question, ‘couldn’t be carried on without one. No man, sir, acquainted with the facts established by Harvey relating to the circulation of the blood, can doubt that I have a heart.’ ‘Is it accessible,’ cried Mr. Gradgrind, ‘to any compassionate influence?’ ‘It is accessible to Reason, sir,’ returned the excellent young man. ‘And to nothing else."

Context: Gradgrind asks Bitzer for compassion at the circus

Facts replace mercy with a physiology lecture.

In Today's Words:

Gradgrind asks Bitzer if he has a heart, and Bitzer answers that Harvey proved circulation requires one, but compassion reaches him through Reason alone. The exchange is comic and cruel. When education treats feeling as error, the best student can quote science to refuse a father. Bitzer is not lying. He is exactly what the system was built to produce.

"It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn’t get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there."

Context: After Bitzer says schooling was a paid bargain

Dickens states the doctrine Gradgrind now must face.

In Today's Words:

The narrator says Gradgrind's philosophy demanded that nobody help anybody without purchase, gratitude abolished, every inch of life a bargain across a counter, and Heaven itself not politico-economical if entered otherwise. This is the chapter's thesis in one paragraph. Bitzer did not distort the teaching. He applied it. Gradgrind's collapse comes from recognizing his own words in the pursuer's mouth.

"Thquire, that dog wath Merrylegth.’ ‘Sissy’s father’s dog!’ ‘Thethilia’th father’th old dog. Now, Thquire, I can take my oath, from my knowledge of that dog, that that man wath dead—and buried—afore that dog come back to me. Joth’phine and Childerth and me talked it over a long time, whether I thould write or not. But we agreed, “No. There’th nothing comfortable to tell; why unthettle her mind, and make her unhappy?” Tho, whether her father bathely detherted her; or whether he broke hith own heart alone, rather than pull her down along with him; never will be known, now, Thquire, till—no, not till we know how the dogth findth uth out!"

Context: Sleary tells Gradgrind how Merrylegs returned

Love and mystery answer utilitarian accounting.

In Today's Words:

Sleary says Merrylegs was Sissy's father's dog, that Jupe was dead and buried before the lame animal found him, and that whether Jupe deserted Sissy or broke his own heart will never be known till we know how dogs find us out. The novel's soft counter-proof to Bitzer arrives as story, not statistic. Loyalty travels farther than policy can track. Gradgrind must sit with what cannot be priced or proven.

"People mutht be amuthed. They can’t be alwayth a learning, nor yet they can’t be alwayth a working, they an’t made for it. You _mutht_ have uth, Thquire. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and make the betht of uth; not the wurtht!"

Context: Sleary's parting advice to Gradgrind

The final moral: amusement and kindness are not luxuries.

In Today's Words:

Sleary tells Gradgrind not to be cross with poor vagabonds because people must be amused, they cannot always be learning or working, and the Squar must have them. Do the wise thing and the kind thing and make the best of us, not the worst. Hard Times ends its last chapter on circus wisdom, not parliamentary reform. A society that only grinds will break its children and call the breakage realism.