Thomas Gradgrind is the notorious school board Superintendent in Dickens's 1854 novel Hard Times who is dedicated to the pursuit of profitable enterprise.
[1] His name is now used generically to refer to someone who is hard and only concerned with cold facts and numbers.
He also ran a model school where young pupils were treated as machines, or pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts.
[3] This satirised the Scottish philosopher James Mill who attempted to develop his sons into perfect utilitarians.
The character Sissy Jupe replies, ingenuously, that she would because, "If you please, Sir, I am very fond of flowers.
But you mustn't fancy," cried the gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point.