How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
'I am going to take young Mr. Tom back to Coketown, in order to deliver him over to Mr. Bounderby. Sir, I have no doubt whatever that Mr. Bounderby will then promote me to young Mr. Tom's situation. And I wish to have his situation, sir, for it will be a rise to me, and will do me good […] I am sure you know that the whole social system is a question of self-interest. What you must always appeal to, is a person's self-interest. It's your only hold. We are so constituted. I was brought up in that catechism when I was very young, sir, as you are aware.'[…]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. (3.8.8-10, 15)
Gradgrind learns (the very hard way) what life is like if generosity and empathy are excluded from the education of children. Even more ominously, Bitzer has adopted the language of religion to describe his highly anti-Christian view of ethics, calling the idea of strict selfishness a "catechism" (this is usually the name for the set of questions posed to Christians to have them confirm their beliefs). The narrator echoes this substitution, wondering whether heaven follows the rules of classical economics (compare to the Good Samaritan/Bad Economist bit in the previous quotation).