Gradgrind, Mr. Thomas. A retired wholesale hardware merchant.

"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, 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 himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general.

Visiting his model school in company with a government officer of the same intensely practical, utilitarian stamp as himself, he tells the teacher, Mr. M'Choakumchild,

"Now, 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 schoolroom, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster'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 emphasis 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.

Mr. Gradgrind's residence is a very matter-of-fact place, called "Stone Lodge," situated on a moor within a mile or two of the great manufacturing town of Coketown.

was.

A very regular feature on the face of the country, Stone Lodge Not the least disguise toned down or shaded off that uncompromising fact in the landscape. A great square house, with a heavy portico darkening the principal windows, as its master's heavy brows overshadowed his eyes, a calculated, cast-up, balanced, and proved house. Six windows on this side of the door, six on that side; a total of twelve in this wing, a total of twelve in the other wing; four and twenty carried over to the back; a lawn and garden and an infant avenue, all ruled straight like a botanical account-book; gas and ventilation, drainage and waterservice, all of the primest quality; iron clamps and girders, fireproof, from top to bottom; mechanical lifts for the housemaids, with all their brushes and brooms: everything that heart could desire.

Mr. Gradgrind marries his eldest daughter, according to a mathematical plan which he has adopted, to Mr. Bounderby, another eminently practical man, who is not only twenty years her senior, but is in every respect unsuited to her. The result of this ill-assorted union is unhappiness not only to the wife, but to her father as well, for whom a still sharper trial is in store. His eldest son, whom he has carefully trained, becomes dissipated, robs his employer, and brings disgrace on the hitherto unblemished name of Gradgrind. In his sore trouble, Mr. Gradgrind is consoled and strengthened by two of the most unpractical people in the world, Mr. Sleary, the manager of a circus, and Sissy Jupe, the daughter of a clown, both of whom he has repeatedly lectured on their utter want of worldly wisdom and practicality. Forced to admit that much of his misfortune is attributable to his own hard system of philosophy, he becomes a humbler and a wiser man, bending his hitherto inflexible theories to appointed circumstances; making his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and Charity, and no longer trying to grind that heavenly trio in his dusty little mills. I: i-ix, xiv-xvi; II: i-iii, vii, ix, xi, xii; III: i-ix. Gradgrind, Mrs. Wife of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind.

A little thin, white, pink-eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness mental and bodily; who was always taking physic without any effect; and who, whenever she showed a symptom of coming to life, was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact tumbling on her. I: iv, ix, xv; II: ix.