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Thu 27 Mar, 2014 01:05 am
“A touch! A distinct touch!” cried Holmes. “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law–and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations –that’s the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year’s pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor–such would be your respective roles! That’s genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”
“May I be there to see!” I exclaimed devoutly. “But you were speaking of this man Porlock.”
“Ah, yes–the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some little way from its great attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound link–between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far as I have been able to test it.”
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What do the red words mean? I know every word, but not the combination.
@WBYeats,
This whole text is rather tricky (being old-fashioned) even for a native speaker.
However
Quote:But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”
But "if I am spared by lesser men," must mean that Holmes has something ahead, maybe something to do with a legal process, of which he is not sure of the outcome. It may be something to do with the man Porlock, but the text does not make this clear. He must succeed in that before he tackles Mr Moriarty.
"... our day will surely come.” He is confident he and Watson, his assistant, will triumph in the end.
um...do you mean he has something to deal with by 'he has something ahead'?
@WBYeats,
Yes, apparently something up ahead which he must deal with first.
Thank you~
But does LESSER MEN mean those intellectually inferior to Moriarty?
@WBYeats,
Presumably so. Moriarty is identified as their opponent, and Holmes cannot start to deal with him until he has dealt with some problem with other individuals, referred to as "lesser men". He must therefore be comparing them with Moriarty.