A Study in Scarlet — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

A STUDY IN SCARLET. 19 being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth traveled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly real- ize It. “You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. ‘“‘ Now that I do know it, I shall do my best to forget it.” “To forget it!” “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very care- ful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It 1s a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can dis- tend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” “ But the solar system!” I protested. “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted, impa- tiently; “‘you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon, it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.” (C(O) an NOOO KS .(G