ith his story. The characters of Mr. Dombey and the Chuzzlewits are not
mere incidents in the tale, nor are they monstrosities which call forth
immediate astonishment and horror. But in each case the ingrained
selfishness which spreads misery through a family is the very mainspring
of the story; and the dramatic power by which Dickens makes it reveal
itself in action has something Shakespearian in it. Here there is still
a balance between the different elements, the human interest and the
moral lesson, and as works of art they are on a higher plane than _Hard
Times_, where the purpose is too clearly shown. Still if we wish to
understand this side of Dickens's work, it is just such a book as _Hard
Times_ that we must study.

It deals with the relation of classes to one another in an industrial
district, and especially with the faults of the class that rose to power
with the development of manufacturing. Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby,
the well-meaning pedant and the offensive parvenu, preach the same
gospel. Political economy, as they understand it, is to rule life, and
this dismal science is not concerned with human well-being and
happiness, but only with the profit and loss on commercial undertakings.
Hard facts then are to be the staple of education; memory and accurate
calculation are to be cultivated; the imagination is to be driven out.
In depicting the manner of this education Dickens rather overshoots the
mark. The visit of Mr. Gradgrind to Mr. M'Choakumchild's school (when
the sharp-witted Bitzer defines the horse according to the scientific
handbook, while poor Cissy, who has only an affection for horses,
indulges in fancies and collapses in disgrace) is too evident a
caricature. But the effects of this kind of teaching are painted with a
powerful hand, and we see the faculty for joy blighted almost in the
cradle. And the lesson is enforced not only by the working man and his
family but by Gradgrind's own daughter, who pitilessly convicts her
father of having stifled every generous impulse in her and of having
sacrificed her on the altar of fancied self-interest.

Side by side with the dismal Mr. Gradgrind is the poor master of the
strolling circus, Mr. Sleary, with his truer philosophy of life. He can
see the real need that men have for amusement and for brightness in
their lives; and, though he lives under the shadow of bankruptcy, he can
hold his head up and preach the gospel of happiness. This was a cause