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, but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind — no, sir!" Indeed, he seemed to be a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts. "Girl number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger. "I don't know that girl. Who is that girl?" 66 Sissy Jupe, sir," explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtsying. "Sissy is not a name," said Mr. Gradgrind. "Don't call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia." "Father calls me Sissy, sir," returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsy. “Then he has no business to do it," said Mr. Gradgrind. "Tell him he mustn't. is your father?" Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What "He belongs to the horse riding, if you please, sir.” Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling 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." He "You mustn't tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a horse breaker. doctors sick horses, I dare say." ber twenty unable to define a horse!" said nd. "Girl number twenty possessed of no rence to one of the commonest of animals! efinition of a horse. Bitzer, yours.' e finger, moving here and there, lighted sudzer, perhaps because he chanced to sit in the sunlight which irradiated Sissy. said Thomas Gradgrind, "your definition of ed. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely, grinders, four eyeteeth, and twelve incisors. the spring; in marshy countries sheds hoofs, hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. by marks in the mouth." -1 number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, “you horse is." ed again, and would have blushed deeper, have blushed deeper than she had blushed all I gentleman now stepped forth. A mighty ng and drying, was he; a government officer; aining, always with a system to force down throat, always to be heard of at the bar of his office. ell," said this gentleman, briskly, smiling and arms. "That's a horse. Now, let me ask LIT. VI. - 23 you, girls and boys, would you paper a room with representations of horses?" After a pause, one half the children cried in a chorus, "Yes, sir!" upon which the other half, seeing in the gentleman's face that "yes" was wrong, cried out in a chorus, "No, sir!" as the custom is in these examinations. “Of course not, why wouldn't you?” A pause. One corpulent, slow boy, with a wheezy manner of breathing, ventured to answer, "Because I wouldn't paper a room at all, I'd paint it." "You must paper it," said the gentleman, rather warmly. "Yes, 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?" "I'll explain to you, then," said the gentleman, after a dismal pause, "why you wouldn't paper a room with representations of horses. Do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of a room in reality, — in fact? Do you?" 66 "Yes, sir," from one half. "No, sir," from the other. "Of course not," 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. This is a new principle, a discovery, a great discovery," said the gentleman. "Now I'll try you again. Suppose you were going to carpet a room, would you use a carpet having a representation 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 with representations of flowers, would you?" said the gentleman. would you?" "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?" "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" 66 "Aye, aye, aye! But you mustn't fancy," cried the gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point. "That's it! You are never to fancy." "You are not, Cecilia Jupe," Thomas Gradgrind solemnly repeated, "to do anything of that kind." 6 "You are to be in all things regulated and governed," said the gentleman, "by Fact. You must discard the word 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 walls. You must 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." HEAVEN IS NOT REACHED AT A SINGLE BOUND JOSIAH G. HOLLAND Mr. Holland was a very popular author and lecturer. His poetry was pure and sweet. "Bitter Sweet," and "Kathrina" are his two most popular poems. His stories always have a strong moral purpose. "Arthur Bonnicastle,” and “The Story of Seven Oaks” are the most widely read of all his works of fiction. HEAVEN is not reached at a single bound, But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, I count this thing to be grandly true: That a noble deed is a step toward God,- A A MODEST WIT SELLECK OSBORNE SUPERCILIOUS nabob of the East Haughty, being great — purse-proud, being rich A governor, or general, at the least I have forgotten which - |