Date: 2014-03-02 11:33 am (UTC)
vaysh: (Holmes/Watson canon)
From: [personal profile] vaysh
Reading the story, I found the rose reference beyond intriguing, as it leads up to this observation by Holmes:

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."

I am wondering whether ACD hinted at this side of Holmes to subtly prepare readers for Holmes' death. "The Naval Treaty" was published in The Strand in October and November 1893, with "The Final Problem" to follow in December of that year. The quote is fascinating, I think, especially in light of the religion vs. science debate of the late 19th century. Sherlock Holmes is stereotypically portrayed as a proponent of the "enlightened" logic of reason and modern science, but here he uses the very same methods to argue for the importance of religion, and makes the argument that it is exactly the superfluous beauty of flowers that is evidence for the "goodness of Providence". I find myself agreeing, actually. :)
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Sherlock Holmes: 60 for 60

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