How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
"It was imprudent, all the same," said Holmes, shaking his head and looking very grave. "I beg, Sir Henry, that you will not go about alone. Some great misfortune will befall you if you do." (6.16)
Interesting that Holmes uses the verb "will" and not "may" here, as in, Sir Henry, you will get into trouble on your own vs. you might get into trouble on your own. Holmes' certainty that something bad is coming for Sir Henry makes us all the more eager to know what's going to happen next. Anything that makes Holmes look "very grave" must be very serious and dangerous indeed.
Quote #5
"Yes, sir, my name was Selden, and he is my younger brother. We humoured him too much when he was a lad and gave him his own way in everything until he came to think that the world was made for his pleasure, and that he could do what he liked in it. Then as he grew older he met wicked companions, and the devil entered into him until he broke my mother's heart and dragged our name in the dirt. From crime to crime he sank lower and lower until it is only the mercy of God which has snatched him from the scaffold; but to me, sir, he was always the little curly-headed boy that I had nursed and played with as an elder sister would." (9.74)
Mrs. Barrymore's story is heart-breaking. She can't help loving her brother, even when he has gone "from crime to crime." Still, she has the moral judgment to recognize his evil ways.
There's also the implication that a person's experiences can influence his moral character. Mrs. Barrymore attributes her brother's problems to his being spoiled as a child. She also believes they were the result of having the wrong kind of friends. So here's another view of the nature/nurture puzzle. You can be born good and become evil.
Mrs. Barrymore's plotline reminds us that we can have compassion for wrongdoers. Also that your mother was right not to buy you a new MacBook Air when you already had a perfectly good laptop that you hardly ever used anyway, young lady.
Quote #6
I shrugged my shoulders. "If [Selden] were safely out of the country it would relieve the tax-payer of a burden."
"But how about the chance of his holding someone up before he goes?"
"He would not do anything so mad, sir. We have provided him with all that he can want. To commit a crime would be to show where he was hiding."
"That is true," said Sir Henry. "Well, Barrymore—"
"God bless you, sir, and thank you from my heart! It would have killed my poor wife had he been taken again."
"I guess we are aiding and abetting a felony, Watson? But, after what we have heard I don't feel as if I could give the man up, so there is an end of it. All right, Barrymore, you can go." (10.15-20)
Sir Henry and Watson decide to leave Selden alone until the Barrymores can get him on a ship out of the country. Do you agree with the choice that they make to "relieve the tax-payer of a burden" by letting Selden escape Britain? Would you make the same choice, if you were in their place? Why doesn't Sir Henry feel that he "could give the man up," in any case? We shudder to think what Judge Judy would have to say about this.