TEE SHERMAN PRINCIPLE IN RHETORIC. 535 



foxmd in the average number of words used by any given author per 

 sentence would also hold in regard to the number of finite verbs, or 

 predications, found in each sentence. The results obtained convinced 

 me also that there was a uniformity in the number of simple sentences 

 per hundred of a given author. ' ' Mr. Gerwig expresses his conviction 

 that the average number of predications and simple sentences in five 

 hundred periods of any author who has achieved a style is approxi- 

 mately the average of his whole work. In particular he found that 

 'while Chaucer and Spenser put habitually over five main verbs in each 

 sentence they wrote, and less than ten simple sentences in each hun- 

 dred, Macaulay and Emerson used only a little over two verbs per sen- 

 tence, and left over thirty-five verbs in each hundred simple.' 



The theory which has grown out of these investigations has been 

 most tersely stated by Mr. Hildreth, another student of Professor Sher- 

 man, who at the same time applies the theory to the Bacon-Shakespeare 

 controversy. We read: 



Ten years or more ago Professor Sherman, while investigating the course 

 of stylistic evolution in English prose, made the discovery that authors indi- 

 cate their individuality by constant sentence proportions, personal and peculiar 

 to themselves. This vras demonstrated especially with the number of words used 

 per sentence in large averagings. It was found that De Quincey, Channing 

 and Macaulay, if five hundred periods or more were taken, evinced this average 

 invariably, and in the earliest as well as in the latest period of their author- 

 ship. This discovery led to the suspicion that good writers would be found con- 

 stant in predication averages, in per cent, of simple sentences, and other stylistic 

 details. Acting upon a suggestion to this effect, Mr. G. W. Gerwig, then a 

 pupil of Professor Sherman, undertook an investigation that established the 

 constancy of predication, as well as simple-sentence frequency, in given authors. 

 . . . Professor Sherman and Mr. Gerwig have thus established by an examina- 

 tion of a great many authors, that writers are structurally consistent with 

 themselves; that they possess a certain sentence-sense peculiarly their own. 

 These investigators have established that by this instinct authors use a constant 

 average sentence-length, and a certain number of predications per sentence, 

 and that a given per cent, of their sentences will be simple sentences. . . . 

 The work of these investigators covers a large amount of material and a wide 

 field of literature. They have examined and compared the works of ancient 

 and recent authors, early and late writings of the same author, and writings 

 of the same author of different character, such as history and dialogue, poetry 

 and prose.* Tlie results thus far obtained are sufficient to show that it is 

 not possible for a writer to escape from his stylistic peculiarities. 



The principle once established, its application to cases of disputed 

 authorship is very plain. If each author employs but one set of av- 

 erage sentence proportions such as sentence-length, predication average 

 and simple sentence frequency, it is only necessary to determine these 

 constants for a disputed work and compare them with those of its sup- 

 posed author. If the two sets of constants manifest a striking differ- 



* This Professor Sherman tells me is an oversight. Neither he nor Mr. 

 Gerwig think that the principle in question applies to poetry. 



