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"But the Solar System!" I protested.

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "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."

I was on the point of asking him what that work might be, but something in his manner showed me that the question would be an unwelcome one.

I pondered over our short conversation, however, and endeavoured to draw my deductions from it.

He said that he would acquire no knowledge which did not bear upon his object.

Therefore all the knowledge which he possessed was such as would be useful to him.

I enumerated in my own mind all the various points upon which he had shown me that he was exceptionally well-informed.

I even took a pencil and jotted them down.

I could not help smiling at the document when I had completed it.

It ran in this way -

SHERLOCK HOLMES - his limits.

1. Knowledge of Literature. - Nil.

2. Philosophy. - Nil.

3. Astronomy. - Nil.

4. Politics. - Feeble.

5. Botany. - Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.

6. Geology. - Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.

7. Chemistry. - Profound.

8. Anatomy. - Accurate, but unsystematic.

9. Sensational Literature. - Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.

10. Plays the violin well.

11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.

12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.

When I had got so far in my list I threw it into the fire in despair. "If I can only find what the fellow is driving at by reconciling all these accomplishments, and discovering a calling which needs them all," I said to myself, "I may as well give up the attempt at once."

I see that I have alluded above to his powers upon the violin.

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