Oh, madam, when you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children’s mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. This shows the religious hypocrisy of Mr. Brocklehurst, the clergyman who operates Lowood boarding school for orphaned girls. He is speaking to Miss Temple, the kind and fair-minded teacher in charge of Lowood, who complains that breakfast was so bad that the pupils couldn’t eat it. She has ordered bread and cheese for lunch but is slammed by Brocklehurst for this. Burnt porridge is good for the girls’s souls, he declares.