From The Adventure of the Creeping Man:
“We can but try.”
“Excellent, Watson! Compound of the Busy Bee and Excelsior. We can but try—the motto of the firm.”
What do you believe Sherlock Holmes meant by “Busy Bee” and “Excelsior”?
(Note for Next Week: The Weekly Forum on Tues, May 12th will be about the newest publications from the John H Watson Society – so enjoy reading and be set to discuss the Watsonian/Fiction/Monograph publications next Tuesday!)
“How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!” Learned this one as a small child, the moral being that we should be busy and doing and achieving and not lazy.
“Excelsior” means “higher” in Latin.
Together, the motto of the firm is “Always keep doing; always do better.” Or “More and better.” Or something similar. Add “We can but try,” and we end up with something like “We keep striving for better.”
Why do these things always sound better in Latin?
I think that those two Items were ingredients of the compound Holmes picked up and read from the label. The motto of the firm would be on the label also.