The Doctor only undertook the charge of ten young gentlemen, but he had, always ready, a supply of learning for a hundred, on the lowest estimate; and it was at once the business and delight of his life to gorge the unhappy ten with it.
In fact, Doctor Blimber's establishment was a great hot-house, in which there was a forcing apparatus incessantly at work.

All the boys blew before their time.

Mental green-peas were produced at Christmas, and intellectual asparagus all the year round.

Mathematical gooseberries (very sour ones too) were common at untimely seasons, and from mere sprouts of bushes, under Doctor Blimber's cultivation.

Every description of Greek and Latin vegetable was got off the driest twigs of boys, under the frostiest circumstances.