Chapter 23
Whom none of us believe, my dear Mrs Bounderby, and who do not believe themselves. The only difference between us and the professors of virtue or benevolence, or philanthropy never mind the name is, that we know it is all meaningless, and say so; while they know it equally and will never say so. Why should she be shocked or warned by this reiteration? It was not so unlike her fathers principles, and her early training, that it need startle her. Where was the great difference between the two schools, when each chained her down to material realities, and inspired her with no faith in anything else? What was there in her soul for James Harthouse to destroy, which Thomas Gradgrind had nurtured there in its state of innocence! It was even the worse for her at this pass, that in her mind impla
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