'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 school-room, 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.
'In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!'
The
speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the
inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have
imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the
brim.