" Thus (and much more) Bitzer.
"Now, girl number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, "you know what a horse
is."
She curtsied again, blushed, and sat down, and the third gentleman
present stepped forth, briskly smiling and folding his arms. "That's a
horse," he said. "Now, let me ask you, boys and girls, 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!"
"Of course, No. Why wouldn't you?"
A pause. One boy ventured the answer, because he wouldn't paper a room
at all, but would paint it.
"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 another pause,
"why you wouldn't paper a room with a representation of horses. Do you
ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms in reality--in
fact? Of course, No. 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. This is a new principle, a great discovery," said the gentleman.
"Now I'll try you again. 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.
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