THE SHERMAN PRINCIPLE IN RHETORIC. 



537 



The chief fact which apparently gives weight to the persistence of 

 sentence proportions, regardless of the composition employed, is the 

 instance of Macaulay's 'History of England,' for which the sentence 

 constants are practically the same as those of his essays, notwithstand- 

 ing that some parts of the 'History,' in particular the second volume, 

 contain much dialogue. This anomaly is explained by the fact that 

 taking the five volumes as a whole the essay stj'le predominates to such 

 an exlent as practically to obliterate the disturbing effect of the dia- 

 logue portions. This is easily demonstrated. The average sentence 

 length of 'Macaulay's History' is 24.43, which differs but little from 

 23.65 of Machiavelli. 24.00 of Pitt and 23.00 of the 'Essay on History' 



Variation of Sentence-length in Ten Authors. 



500 10. 

 500 51. 



500 15. 



500 45. 



Stcift. 



' Polite Conversation ' 



'Essay on the four last years of Queen Anne '. 



Dryden. 



' The Mock- Astrologer ' 



' Essay on Satire ' 



Gcldsmith. 



' She Stoops to Conquer ' 



' The Vicar of Wakefield ' 



' Present State of P. Learning in Europe ' . . . . 



Scott. 



' Life of Napoleon ' 



' Auchindrane ' \ 500 





02 



Average Number of Words 

 Sentence. 



per 



5 o I ^ o 



500 

 500 

 500 



13. 

 31. 

 30. 



8:12. 

 6 49. 



16. 

 48. 



9 13. 

 2 30. 

 4 24. 



3 O 

 O --I 



^o 



12.113.7 

 3 58.2 62.1 



19.617.1 

 40.144.8 



1 13.2,14.9 

 8:27.5 25.8 

 6 25.7 23.5 



' Ivanhoe ' 



Carlyle. 



' Signs of the Times,' etc . 

 ' The Hero as Divinity ' . . 



Bayard Taylor. 

 'The Prophet'. 



500'46.0;47, 



1 21. 



2 35. 



'" : >z- 



. = 



13.6 

 53.0 



16.3 

 33.3 



12.4 

 26.5 

 20.4 



' Balearic Days ' . 

 Lowell. 



'Letters,' Vol. II... 

 'Fable for Critics'. 



Holmes. 



' Guardian Angel ' . . 



500 



500 

 500 



500 

 500 



500 

 180 



500 



19.] 



46. 



50.0 

 9 23.9 

 3 33.7 



27. 

 25. 



15. 

 30. 



4 31. 

 2:21. 



49.8 i 46.5 

 19.2 21.8 

 29.8 32.2 



8 26.9:34.5 

 5! 24.3 23.5 



81 11.8! 11.3 14.8 

 3: 29.3 27.8 26.6 



21.8 



18.8:18.2:22.5 



26. 



' Tlie Autocrat at the Breakfast Table " ' 500, 19. 



Longfellow. 



' The Spanish Student ' . 

 ' Hyperion ' 



Schiller. 



' The Robbers ' * 



'History of Thirty Years' War'. 



500 

 500 



12500 



.1 500 



12. 

 20. 



12. 

 29, 



4 29. 

 7,18. 



0; 8. 



5 '25. 



2Jn. 



9 27. 



32.231.1 

 8 18.0 23.8 



8 11.1 

 4| 27.5 



4 12.6 

 8 28.3 



8.8 

 24.3 



10.2 



24.9 



42.3 

 23.4 



16.4 

 27.6 



17.2 



25.6 

 20.1 1 



10.1 1 

 21.3 



10.9 

 25.7 



12.4 

 54.8 



16.9 

 42.3 



13.5 

 28.4 

 24.9 



47.9 

 21.2 

 35.4 



32.6 

 23.6 



14.0 

 28.3 



19.T 

 96.6 



28.9 

 20.1 



10.2 

 23.S 



11.5 

 27.3 



* The averages except the last are for 500 periods. 



