THE SHERMAN PRINCIPLE IN RHETORIC. 541 



2.34^^32.9 = 13. + 

 2.62^25.9 3=13.+ 



and so on through the list, the result in each case being 13. -j-. In 

 short, we have quite uniformly 



where C = 13.57, the arithmetic mean of the slightly varying values 

 13. -f-, which are given in the last column of our table. 



How nearly this equation fits our data may be best seen from the 

 graphical representation. Fig. 1. The curve P -j/ >S = 13.57, as well 



ap the P's and /S's from our table, have been plotted in rectangular co- 

 ordinates by using the values of 8 for abscissas, and for ordinates ten 

 times the corresponding values of P. The resulting points have been 

 numbered to correspond with the index numbers in our table. 



The relation expressed by P -y/ S^=C may be easily expressed in 

 words. For if P^ and Po represent two predication averages, and 8^, 

 82, the corresponding simple sentence percentages, Ave have approxi- 

 mately 



from which 



P,:P, = i/8,:^8, 



that is : 



The predication averages of various works are approximately in- 

 versely proportional to the square-roots of their simple sentence per- 

 centages. 



