“the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street” [BOSC]
“You have a grand gift of silence, Watson,” Sherlock Holmes said in "The Man with the Twisted Lip."
For Holmes, silence was golden. It gave him the opportunity to do what he did best: think. Thinking was at the core of his profession, and when he added his energetic footwork and investigation to it, Sherlock Holmes was quite formidable.
Remember in "The Greek Interpreter" how he delineated the difference between himself and his brother Mycroft:
“If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an arm-chair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived.”
He clearly had respect for his brother's thinking abilities. He used quiet time to work things out many times himself:
“He sank back into the state of intense and silent thought.” [NAVA]
“Holmes had listened to his story with the utmost attention, and now he sat for some time in silent thought.” [DANC]
“Holmes sat for some time in silent thought.” [SHOS]
“Let us reconstruct, Watson,” said Holmes after half an hour of silence. [BRUC]
Holmes valued quiet time. This may be why, in "The Problem of Thor Bridge," he had to admonish J. Neil Gibson:
“Don’t be noisy, Mr. Gibson. I find that after breakfast even the smallest argument is unsettling.”
Let's sit in silent thought and muse over the latest edition of Baker Street Elementary...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at www.bakerstreetelementary.org.
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