Page 31 - 血字的研究·四签名(外研社双语读库) (福尔摩斯探案全集)

他的无知与他拥有的知识同样惊人。对于现代文学、哲学和政

治，他几乎一无所知。我引用汤姆斯·卡莱尔的文章时，他天真地问我
卡莱尔是什么人，还有他都干过些什么。不过，我无意中发现，他竟

然对哥白尼学说以及太阳系构成也全然不知，那时，我的惊奇才达到
了极点。一个十九世纪的文明人竟然不知道地球围着太阳转，这在我

看来是一个非同寻常的事实，让我难以理解。

"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."

“你看起来很吃惊，”看到我惊讶的表情，他笑着说道，“即使知

道了这些，我也要尽力把它忘掉。”

"To forget it!"

“把它忘掉？!"

"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 skilful
workman is very careful 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 is a mistake
to think that that little room has elastic walls and can
distend 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."

“要知道，”他解释说，“我认为，人脑本来像一间空空的小阁
楼，你得选择一些家具放进去。一个傻瓜才会把他见到的各种废旧家