A Study in Scarlet — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

18 A STUDY IN SCARLET, remembered how objectless was my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exception- ally genial, and 1 had no friends who would call upon me and break the monotony of my daily existence. Under these circumstances, I eagerly hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much of my time in endeavoring to unravel it. He was not studying medicine. He had himself, in reply to a question, confirmed Stamford’s opinion upon that point. Neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in science or any other recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the learned world. Yet his zeal for certain studies was remarkable, and within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinanly ample and minute that his observations have fairly astounded me. Surely no man would work so hard to attain such pre- cise information unless he had some definite end in view. Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exact- ness of their learning. Noman burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so. His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy, and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican theory and of the com- position of the solar system. That any civilized human GOmIicnoo s) (E(0)