A Study in Scarlet (Serial Edition Cover) — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

24 4 STUDY I(N SCARLET. ! processes by which he had arrived at them, they might well consider him as a necromancer. “From a drop of water,” said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection init. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by master- ing more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of the man, and the trade or profession to which he be- longs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation and teaches one where to look and what to look for. By a man’s finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs—by each of these things a man’s call- ing is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable.” “What ineffable twaddle!” I cried, slapping the maga- zine down on the table; “I never read such rubbish in my life.” “What is it? ’” asked Sherlock Holmes. “Why, this article,” I said, pointing at it with my Gomicboo Shale