INVESTIGATIONS 101

Guidance for Police Officers in “Father Brown’s Detective Short Stories” by Chesterton (11 to 15)

Gilles Renaud | Ontario Court of Justice (1995-2023)

INTRODUCTION

The British writer G.K. Chesterton wrote more than fifty detective stories featuring a most improbable investigator, a Roman Catholic priest invariably referred to as Father Brown. This diminutive and apparently unremarkable cleric combined his knowledge of human nature, gained from serving his poor parishioners including a criminal underclass, with a logical and disciplined mind resulting from his rigorous religious studies. Indeed, as he modestly notes from time to time, one learns a lot about crime and those who engage in this conduct in the confessional and when visiting parishioners in custody. Father Brown is rigorous in his incisive analysis of the anti-social events that he encounters seemingly every day of his life, often in the company of a former criminal Flambeau, but never rigid in extending compassion to those who have erred in their conduct, always desirous of bringing them back into the embrace of their community. But, first, he must examine the clues and solve the crime, calling forth investigative skills still relevant today in this age of DNA, AI and technologically based forensic sleuthing of every kind. Father Brown then returns to his quite life.

It is this skill as a detective that commands attention in this article, and I seek to review the guidance for investigators found in five further detective stories penned by Chesterton, being adventures 11 to 15. They first two are entitled “The Sign of the Broken Sword” and “The Three Tools of Death” and they appeared in the collection The Innocence of Father Brown. The next three adventures are found in the second collection of short stories, The Wisdom of Father Brown: “The Absence of Mr. Glass”, “The Paradise of Thieves” and “The Duel of Dr. Hirsh”.

The first ten Father Brown sleuthing short stories were published in The Innocence of Father Brown and are discussed in my two prior reviews of Chesterton’s contribution to investigators, posted in Mack’s Criminal Law. Interested readers will enjoy the discussion of detective skills found in “The Blue Cross”, “The Secret Garden”, “The Queer Feet”, “The Flying Stars”, “The Invisible Man”, “The Honour of Israel Gow”, “The Wrong Shape”, “The Sins of Prince Saradine, “The Hammer of God” and “The Eye of Apollo”, all written in 1910 or early 1911.

Please note that I follow below the format I have adopted in my prior similar writings seeking instruction for modern detectives from the fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, as posted in Blue Line magazine and Mack’s Criminal Law. Of interest, the valuable lessons are grouped within thematic discussions involving demeanour evidence, human nature, interviewing skills, judgment and professionalism in investigations. One of the most interesting elements found in these stories surrounds the subject of “reversing the proposition”, a title I have selected to describe the wisdom of detectives in flipping any proposed script to see if the opposite conclusion is equally sound. For example, in “The Sign of the Broken Sword”, a battle seems to have been fought and the leader captured and then murdered, but Father Brown reverses the analysis to see if the best way to cover-up a murder is to pile on the victim’s body a battalion of other bodies. In “The Three Tools of Death”, he views a suggested scene of an attack involving ropes and swords and other weapons as a rehearsal by a would-be conjuror, a Harry Houdini before his time. As discussed under that rubric, the author invites investigators to consider the correctness of conclusions from the opposite view.

In sum, I suggest that modern-day investigators can gain valuable insights from this great fictional investigator as to what to do and what not to do, as well as enjoying several good stories.

DISCUSSION

Demeanour

Introduction

Readers of my prior police articles that begin with an overview of “Demeanour evidence” question me as to its relevance to police investigations. The phrase that follows is illustrative of so much demeanour evidence: “’It will be over there on her desk by the door, I think,’ said Kalon, with that massive innocence of manner that seemed to acquit him wholly….” [Emphasis added] [The Eye of Apollo] The underlined passage is no different than the expressions “guilty looks”, “frank appearance” and “sincere eyes” or “evil eyes”. Thus, the detective must be mindful that certain witnesses (one hopes quite few…) will provide incriminating or exculpatory information based on a subjective belief resulting from a judgment of the features or manners of the suspect.

In this context, note that the short story “The Wrong Shape” includes this illustrative phrase: “It was out of this artistic household that Father Brown and his friend stepped on to the doorstep; and to judge from their faces, they stepped out of it with much relief.” [Emphasis added] Of course, there are very pedestrian elements of such non-verbal communication, such as pointing towards a destination or direction. As an example, we read in “The Sins of Prince Saradine”: “… The prosperous man’s smile grew slightly more expansive, and he simply pointed up the river towards the next bend of it…”

In brief, I seek to identify and, at times discuss, several elements of non-verbal communication that you must analyze in seeking to determine the value, credit and reliability of the statements you will accumulate at the investigative stage.

Prior to reviewing these elements in a thematic fashion, allow me to point out certain shortcomings of demeanour evidence. The first is that the demeanour label appears to include very general descriptions, if not vague ones. The reader and the detective have difficulty in knowing what is expressed or described, as does the judge in the courtroom. For example, “The brows of Dr Hood were drawn down darkly, but the eyes under them were bright with something that might be anger or might be amusement.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass] Those are quite different emotions! A second analytical complexity involves the difficulty in perceiving correctly the facial expressions of a stranger. For example, we read in the same short story: “The face of the little Catholic priest, which was commonly complacent and even comic, had suddenly become knotted with a curious frown …” How does the detective know anything about what Father Brown’s face commonly displays, so to speak?

At bottom, the ease with which such errors occur is illustrated by the passage that follows:

Both the Professor and the girl followed the direction of his glance. And though the broad black scarf completely masked the lower half of Todhunter’s visage, they did grow conscious of something struggling and intense about the upper part of it.

“His eyes do look odd,” cried the young woman, strongly moved. “You brutes; I believe it’s hurting him!”

“Not that, I think,” said Dr Hood; “the eyes have certainly a singular expression. But I should interpret those transverse wrinkles as expressing rather such slight psychological abnormality--”

“Oh, bosh!” cried Father Brown: “can’t you see he’s laughing?”

[The Absence of Mr. Glass]

I propose to now review the elements of demeanour evidence found in these short stories, and to include certain critical comments when the suggested shortcomings or excellent features are not obvious.

Elements of demeanour

- Air - failure

“… He was good-natured enough also, but it was a sad sort of good-nature, almost a heart-broken sort--he had the general air of being some sort of failure in life…” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Air – odd

“… The great banker nodded with an odd air of business assent, seemed to reflect a moment …” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Attitude – irony

“At the last plea of the ingenuous priest a chuckle broke out of him from inside, and he threw himself into an armchair in an ironical attitude of the consulting physician.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass] To explain a priest’s attitude by reference to what a doctor looks like is not terribly helpful.

- Eyes – bright

“The brows of Dr Hood were drawn down darkly, but the eyes under them were bright with something that might be anger or might be amusement…” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Eyes – enlivened

Note this example from “The Three Tools of Death”: “Merton started a little and regarded his companion with an enlivened eye…” I assume it means the same as a lively eye, but whether that means anything to detective work or the fact finding of a judge is a good question.

- Eyes – judgment

“… I can always grasp moral evidence easier than the other sorts. I go by a man’s eyes and voice, don’t you know, and whether his family seems happy, and by what subjects he chooses—and avoids. …” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Eyes – rolling

“… Just as he was rolling his eyes in bewilderment he felt a touch on his elbow and found the odd little priest standing there like a small Noah with a large hat, and requesting the favour of a word or two.” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Eyes - steady

Consider this example suggesting how easily one’s eyes do not betray guilt for wrongdoing undermining the value of demeanour evidence: “In each of the hot and secret countries to which the man went he kept a harem, he tortured witnesses, he amassed shameful gold; but certainly he would have said with steady eyes that he did it to the glory of the Lord. …” [The Sign of the Broken Sword]

- Face – baffling

“Alice looked at him with a complex and baffling face; then she said in a low voice: ‘After it all, I am still glad you are brave.’” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Face – bewilderment

“The Absence of Mr. Glass” includes this phrase: “’I don’t know that either,’ answered Brown, with a face of blank bewilderment.’”

- Face - complacent

“The Absence of Mr. Glass” provides this interesting example: “The face of the little Catholic priest, which was commonly complacent and even comic, had suddenly become knotted with a curious frown …”

- Face – expression

“... But, again, being at the stage of practice, he very slightly grazed the inside of his throat with the weapon. Hence, he has a wound inside him, which I am sure (from the expression on his face) is not a serious one.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Face - lean

“He was clad in an artist’s velvet, but with none of an artist’s negligence; his hair was heavily shot with grey but growing thick and healthy; his face was lean, but sanguine and expectant. Everything about him and his room indicated something at once rigid and restless, like that great northern sea by which (on pure principles of hygiene) he had built his home.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass] This is a little too poetic and too little by way of objective information, especially if a detective considers the room.

- Face - like a flame

“At first, they thought it had run away with the man on its back; but they soon saw that the general, a fine rider, was himself urging it to full speed. Horse and man swept up to them like a whirlwind; and then, reining up the reeling charger, the general turned on them a face like flame, and called for the colonel like the trumpet that wakes the dead.” [Emphasis added] [The Sign of the Broken Sword]

- Face – red-faced

“The Paradise of Thieves” includes this phrase: “… The banker looked at him under lowering brows, red-faced and sulky, but seemingly cowed…”

- Face – sneer

“The next moment he turned his olive, sneering face and made a movement with his hand. …” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Finger, biting off

“… They had passed many hundreds of grey and ghostly trees before the little priest answered. Then he bit his finger reflectively and said: ‘Why, the mystery is a mystery of psychology. Or, rather, it is a mystery of two psychologies. …” See “The Sign of the Broken Sword”. In few words, this may well suggest anxiety. Of course, is it nervousness due to the fear of telling a false account to the investigator, or the judge, or simply anxiety due to the stress of having to assist the authorities and wishing to do so correctly?

- Frown - curious

- Hand – gesture

“As he folded it up and put it back in his pocket Flambeau threw up his hand with a French gesture.” [The Sign of the Broken Sword] I do not know what this means.

- Hand – trembling

“And now his red and trembling hand went reluctantly to his breast-pocket and passed a bundle of papers and envelopes to the brigand.” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Look – odd

“’Well, sir,’ said the sergeant, with the same odd look of wonder, ‘I don’t know that we can.’” [The Sign of the Broken Sword]

- Manner – amazement

“Gilder looked at the manservant in utter amazement. ‘Why on earth did you do that?’ he asked of Magnus.” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Manner - boyish impatience

“He raised his head with unusual pleasure at the sight of the priest and took him a few paces apart. Meanwhile Merton was addressing the older detective respectfully indeed, but not without a certain boyish impatience. …” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Manner - brazen

“’I always knew this would happen,’ he said aloud with brazen blandness …” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Manner – confident

“The door was opened to them by the doctor’s old servant, Simon, who might very well have passed for a doctor himself, having a strict suit of black, spectacles, grey hair, and a confidential manner.” [The Duel of Dr. Hirsh]

- Manner – contempt

“’It is perfectly safe,’ said the courier contemptuously.” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Manner - eagerness

“Flambeau looked about him in the moonlight, as a man struck blind might look in the sun; and his friend went on, for the first time with eagerness…” [Emphasis added] [The Sign of the Broken Sword]

- Manner – gravely

“’… Has been largely altered,’ said the scientist gravely. ‘I do not think this young lady is so Celtic as I had supposed. As I have nothing else to do, I will put on my hat and stroll downtown with you.’” [Emphasis added] [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Manner - innocence

“Father Brown suddenly lifted a face so absurdly fresh that it looked somehow as if he had just washed it. ‘Yes,’ he said, radiating innocence, ‘but is Miss Armstrong’s word against his?’” [The Three Tools of Death] Consider as well: “’Does it pay well?’ asked the troubadour innocently.” The Paradise of Thieves]

- Manner – laughing

Consider this lengthy excerpt demonstrating how easily demeanour evidence is misinterpreted, noted earlier in the introduction:

“His eyes do look odd,” cried the young woman, strongly moved. “You brutes; I believe it’s hurting him!”

“Oh, bosh!” cried Father Brown: “can’t you see he’s laughing?”

[The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Manner – stolid

“’Yes,’ continued the priest stolidly, he was cheerful. But did he communicate his cheerfulness? Frankly, was anyone else in the house cheerful but he?” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Mouth

“The Three Tools of Death” adventure includes this passage: “A faint scorn widened the slit-like mouth, and the whistle of an approaching train seemed oddly to echo the mockery…”

- Smile – enigmatic

“’It will pay me,’ said Ezza, with a very enigmatic smile.” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- Smile - speaks

“The newcomer regarded the doctor with [a] beaming but breathless geniality … His hat tumbled to the carpet, his heavy umbrella slipped between his knees with a thud; he reached after the one and ducked after the other, but with an unimpaired smile on his round face spoke simultaneously as follows…” [Emphasis added] [The Absence of Mr. Glass] I doubt that smiles are as verbose as to communicate what the author then wrote: “… My name is Brown. … I have heard, you often hear …”

- Sign – assent

“The priest made a sign of assent. ‘It does seem a pity,’ he said.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Speaking style – decisiveness

“Livid as he was, he spoke with a sort of prim decision, so that the mob fell silent in the middle of his third sentence.” [The Duel of Dr. Hirsh]

- Speaking style – soberly

“’The man who wrote that note knew all about the facts,’ said his clerical companion soberly…” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Tone – lecturer

“The great specialist having condescended to the priest’s simplicity, condescended expansively. He settled himself with comfort in his armchair and began to talk in the tone of a somewhat absent-minded lecturer …” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Tone - penitence

“He scrambled awkwardly to his feet and said to the self-accused murderer in tones of limpid penitence: ‘I’m awfully sorry, my dear sir, but your tale is really rubbish.’” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Voice –

Human nature

- Character, going against one’s

In some investigations, detectives will discover that the character of the suspect follows one direction, and yet the actions under scrutiny suggest a totally opposite direction. This is a reason to pause and to review the evidence. Thus, “… In that Brazilian business two of the most famous men of modern history acted flat against their characters…” [The Sign of the Broken Sword] A few paragraphs later the author of the Father Brown mysteries wrote: “… He was always more for duty than for dash …” Still later, we read: “One of the best men in the world acted like a fiend …”

- Criminal character the evolution of

Consider this example, drawn from “The Sign of the Broken Sword”: “This is the real case against crime, that a man does not become wilder and wilder, but only meaner and meaner…”

- Death, importance of

Consider this example: “Both by calling and conviction Father Brown knew better than most of us, that every man is dignified when he is dead.” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Duped

“… No--, what puzzled me was the sincerity of both parties. I don’t mean the political parties; the rank and file are always roughly honest and often duped.” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Instinct

Note how that important element of human nature is defined in the very sexist passage that follows: “’You mustn’t be too hard on them,’ said Father Brown gently. ‘It’s not entirely their fault; but they have no instincts. I mean those things that make a woman refuse to dance with a man or a man to touch an investment. They’ve been taught that it’s all a matter of degree.’” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Logic of a lover

“Muscari, with the illogicality of a lover, admired this filial devotion …” [The Paradise of Thieves]

- “Mad or correct”

I am far from agreeing with what follows but certain witnesses you have or will interview may well think this of their neighbours …” Thus: “He rattled short sentences like a quick-firing gun, but he was plainly the sort of man who is either mad or right…” [The Duel of Dr. Hirsh]

- Religious convictions wane until a need arises!

In this context, we read what follows: “… Joyce was an [nationality] by birth; and that casual kind of [religious faith] that never remembers his religion until he is really in a hole. …” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Secrets

“… There is so much good and evil in breaking secrets …” [The Sign of the Broken Sword]

- Smiles

“’People like frequent laughter,’ answered Father Brown, ‘but I don’t think they like a permanent smile. Cheerfulness without humour is a very trying thing.’” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Temptation

“’… You say that nobody could kill such a happy old man, but I’m not sure; ne nos inducas in tentationem [do not lead us into temptation]. If ever I murdered somebody,’ he added quite simply, ‘I dare say it might be an Optimist.” [The Three Tools of Death]

Interviewing witnesses and detainees and other suspects

- Inducements, such as alcohol, are not permitted

Consider the simple example found in the short story “The Sign of the Broken Sword”:

The match burnt the big man’s fingers, blackened, and dropped. He was about to strike another, but his small companion stopped him. ‘That’s all right, Flambeau, old man; I saw what I wanted. Or, rather, I didn’t see what I didn’t want. And now we must walk a mile and a half along the road to the next inn, and I will try to tell you all about it. For Heaven knows a man should have a fire and ale when he dares tell such a story.

In other words, comfort is always prized in ordinary social intercourse and especially when relating an event that is complex, but the law will rule inadmissible a statement from a detainee who is provided things such as alcohol. In the case of a witness statement, the court may well judge that you have “bought” favourable information.

- Marshal one’s recollection of events

On occasion, investigators lose out on an opportunity to obtain valuable information by reason of a failure to allow the witness to be composed and to draw upon their refreshed memory. As we read, “… He vaguely remembered meeting him at the social crushes of some of his Catholic friends. But the man spoke before his memories could collect themselves…” [The Paradise of Thieves] As an interviewer, you should wish to have all those you interview gather their thoughts and recollections prior to undertaking your questions.

Judgment in investigations

- Alcohol

“They walked some way in silence along the windy grassy bank by the rail, and just as they came under the far-flung shadow of the tall Armstrong house, Father Brown said suddenly, like a man throwing away a troublesome thought rather than offering it seriously: ‘Of course, drink is neither good nor bad in itself …’” [The Three Tools of Death]

- Candour

“The Three Tools of Death” includes this comment: “’As far as I can see’, said Mr. Merton candidly …’” Possibly the author of this adventurous short story is capable of such great judgments, but I have little confidence that a detective, or a judge, can make a snap judgment that is correct.

- Conclusion expressed briefly

There is nothing wrong with a detective providing a report that begins with a conclusion, such as found in the short story, “The Sign of the Broken Sword”: “’I must divide [my account] it into two parts,’ remarked the priest. ‘First there is what everybody knows; and then there is what I know. Now, what everybody knows is short and plain enough. It is also entirely wrong.’” Father Brown then went on to describe what everyone knows, which he opined was wrong.

- Correct answer “once in a while” by pure luck

“The Absence of Mr. Glass” includes this interesting observation:

“’I mean a man telling lies on chance would have told some of the truth,’ said his friend firmly. ‘Suppose someone sent you to find a house with a green door and a blue blind, with a front garden but no back garden, with a dog but no cat, and where they drank coffee but not tea. You would say if you found no such house that it was all made up. But I say no. I say if you found a house where the door was blue and the blind green, where there was a back garden and no front garden, where cats were common and dogs instantly shot, where tea was drunk in quarts and coffee forbidden--then you would know you had found the house. The man must have known that particular house to be so accurately inaccurate.”

- Logical versus chronological outline of information

In “The Sign of the Broken Sword“, Father Brown states: “’… There are three more bits of evidence,’ said the other, ‘that I have dug up in holes and corners; and I will give them in logical rather than chronological order. First of all, of course, our authority for the issue and event of the battle is in Olivier’s own dispatches, which are lucid enough. …”

- Memory, of a terrible event

Noteworthy is this example taken from “The Three Tools of Death”: “A man clad completely in black, even (it was remembered) to the dreadful detail of black gloves, appeared on the ridge above the engine, and waved his black hands like some sable windmill …” I have grave doubts that this a correct recollection as opposed to poetic licence that is enduring.

- Police detective novels

This is what one derives from reading this type of fiction: “’I doubt the whole story, though it has been acted before my face. I doubt every sight that my eyes have seen since morning. There is something in this business quite different from the ordinary police mystery where one man is more or less lying and the other man more or less telling the truth…” [The Absence of Mr. Glass]

- Proportion, keeping all things within their correct

Let us begin with a quote from “The Sign of the Broken Sword”: “… So faint was that frigid starlight that nothing could have been traced about [the two men] except that while they both wore black, one man was enormously big, and the other (perhaps by contrast) almost startlingly small.” I recall easily being in an elevator in a chic hotel in Toronto when four quite tall men entered and they wore “swag” of the Bobcats of the N.B.A. I am a quite diminutive individual on any objective basis but next to men who were each at least 6’6” and one who was a head taller than his teammates, I was almost child like by way of contrast. Recall this image when witnesses provide you with a description such as tall or small, big or slight of build, etc. It is wise to seek out further qualifiers to permit a truer comparative understanding and judgment. The first of the two men in our example might have been 6 feet in height but appeared short if his companion was a giant of seven feet.

- Reversing the proposition or view all sides of an issue

On occasion, an investigator will see a factual issue in black and white terms and be correct. In my experience, however, when cases “blow up” in court, so to speak, the reason is often associated with a failure to have examined the other side of the coin, if not the many sides of the dice, to belabour too many images. A simple illustration will serve to illustrate what is meant by “reversing the proposition”: imagine you are on patrol and you see a person kneeling over someone who is lying on the road, with what appears to be a knife in their back. Your first thought is, and should be, he or she has stabbed the victim and is stealing their wallet. However, as you get closer, you see that the would-be murderer is a well-known physician in the municipality and has medical equipment in their hands to comfort the victim, you soon flip your thinking from suspect to Good Samaritan. In the same vein, consider this passage: “… It was an odd night for anyone to explore a churchyard. But, on the other hand, perhaps it was worth exploring.” [The Sign of the Broken Sword] After all, what is the objective value to be assigned to exploring a graveyard? When is the correct time? And who is to judge?

Consider also this example:

“Yes, my son, I’m pretty sure,” replied Gilder drily, “for the trifling

reason that he has gone off with twenty thousand pounds in papers that were in his master’s desk. No, the only thing worth calling a difficulty is how he killed him. The skull seems broken as with some big weapon, but there’s no weapon at all lying about, and the murderer would have found it awkward to carry it away, unless the weapon was too small to be noticed.”

“Perhaps the weapon was too big to be noticed,” said the priest, with an odd little giggle… [The Three Tools of Death]

It turns out the victim was flung down to the ground. See also “The Three Tools of Death”: “’It is quite true, as this fellow says,’ explained Royce, ‘that Miss Armstrong fainted with a knife in her hand. But she had not snatched the knife to attack her father, but to defend him. …’”

- Self-serving information – be wary of

In “The Sign of the Broken Sword“, Father Brown states: “’… There are three more bits of evidence,’ said the other, ‘that I have dug up ... First of all, of course, our authority for the issue and event of the battle is in Olivier’s own dispatches, which are lucid enough. …’” My concern is that the dispatches, the battle reports, sent by General Olivier might well seek to display facts in a manner that was flattering as to his actions. Detectives must be careful to not take everything they receive as Gospel truth, so to speak.

- Two possibly correct conclusions but conflicting

Consider what we read in “The Absence of Mr. Glass”: “’It may be psychologically possible,’ answered Flambeau, ‘and it certainly would explain Dreyfus being certain he was wronged and his judges being sure he was guilty…’” Two different views of the same event is logically possible, considering the defendant is the only one who knows the truth…

Professionalism in investigations

- Candour

Investigators must always be candid, whether in their reports or in testifying. For example, in “The Sign of the Broken Sword”, we read: “’Flambeau I cannot prove it, even after hunting through the tombs. But I am sure of it. Let me add just one more tiny fact that tips the whole thing over…” The superiors who read your reports, the prosecutors who do the same, are entitled to know what your conclusions are and, in this fashion, resources may be assigned to supply the missing information.

- Look at all sides of an issue before decisions are reached

“The Sign of the Broken Sword” includes this valuable though lengthy illustration of this principle of investigations. Thus,

Sir Arthur St. Clare, as I have already said, was a man who read his Bible. That was what was the matter with him. When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody else’s Bible? A printer reads a Bible for misprints. A Mormon reads his Bible, and finds … a Christian Scientist reads his, and finds …. St. Clare was an old Anglo-Indian Protestant soldier. Now, just think what that might mean; and, for Heaven’s sake, don’t cant about it. It might mean a man physically formidable living under a tropic sun in an Oriental society and soaking himself without sense or guidance in an Oriental Book. Of course, he read the Old Testament rather than the New. Of course, he found in the Old Testament anything that he wanted .... Oh, I dare say he was honest, as you call it. But what is the good of a man being honest in his worship of dishonesty?

- Notebook entries to refresh memory

Consider this example from ordinary affairs in which persons seek to refresh their memory: “… and by its light the narrator had been able to refresh his memory of Captain Keith’s text from a scrap of printed paper…” [The Sign of the Broken Sword]