"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." - Hard Times, Charles Dickens.
Taken from the end of the first, incredibly short, chapter of Hard Times, this quote refers to Gradgrind and his fellow staff preparing to deliver a lesson, directly after the former has lectured his teacher on the importance of teaching the children "nothing but Facts".
As you can see, Gradgrind enjoys capitalising the word "Facts", yet the narrator does not. In this first chapter the establishment of the narrator as separate from the characters is of utmost importance, and this stylistic difference is one way in which Dickens achieves this. However, with this type of narrator the author must be careful that descriptions of the internal thoughts of the characters are distinguished from the viewpoint of the narrative voice. By beginning this paragraph with the specification of three characters and their perspective ("swept with their eyes"), it is established that their opinions of the children are being described here, not the narrator's.
A vessel is an object, and a rather passive one at that (as objects go). Their only purpose is to house things, in this case "imperial gallons of facts". The framing of them "arranged in order" perhaps evokes the idea of industrial factory line-ups*. To the adults the children are cold, hardened storage jars, ready to accept their every word. Despite this clinical treatment of these characters, the phrase "full to the brim" almost suggests some discomfort in their state of being. Perhaps the adults see this discomfort, or the efficiency of filling a vessel until it can hold no more hides this from them.
Not only are they gallons, but they are "imperial" gallons - things must be properly measured and specified for utmost accuracy**. Perhaps the descriptor "imperial" not only relates to the measuring system, but creates a sense of the classroom being an empire, with Gradgrind being the emperor and the children his subjects. Indeed, a sense of Gradgrind's power is continuously built throughout the opening chapters of the novel - for example, in the objectification of the children under his gaze.
*and perhaps the schoolmasters themselves are compared to unthinking machines, depositing goods into the vessels.
**the idea that "Facts", incorporeal thoughts of the human brain, are able to be measured underscores both Gradgrind's need for utility and his love of facts, as he makes them into physical possessions.
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