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 composition of the Solar system.
"You appear to be astonished," Holmes said, smiling at my expression. "Now
that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, 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 jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has
difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistak A. Learning what every body learned. B. Learning what was useful to you. C. Learning whatever you came across. D. Learning what was different to you.
