Variation of Sentence-Constants in Literature 

 GRAND SUMMARY 



Instead of adding evidence to the Bacon-Shakespeare contro- 

 versy, this argument seemed to me merely a reductio ad absur- 

 duni of the Sherman principle itself as stated by the writer. It 

 served to convince me of the existence of certain limitations to 

 the principle in question, which had not been recognized, certain 

 restrictions which had been violated. For who is not aware that 

 dramatic prose generally, if not invariably, contains shorter sen- 

 tences, consequently, other things being equal, fewer predica- 

 tions per sentence, and a larger per cent of simple sentences than 

 do other forms of prose composition ? The argument, based upon 

 a difference in sentence-constants merely, could be used equally 

 well to prove that Dryden, the dramatist, did not write the famous 

 Essay on Satire. The only real information conveyed by the 

 above summary is not the fact of variation, which is a common 

 notion of all who are at all familiar with the writers in question, 

 but the widely divergent results indicated by the numbers 12,39 

 and 32.59. Can this difference in the sentence-constants be en- 

 tirely accounted for by the difference in character of the material 

 examined? To satisfy my own mind in the matter, I was im- 

 pelled to make a test. Goethe's works were at hand. I selected 

 one of his prose dramas, Goefc van Berlichingen, and his Bild- 

 hauerkunst. a collection of essays on art. The results were: 



GOETHE 



{Goeiz von Berlichingen) 

 First five hundred periods ... . 8.7 

 Second" " " .... 9.2 



Third " " " .... 8,7 



Fourth " " " .... 7.8 



Fifth " " " ....8.1 



Average for 2,500 periods 8.5 



GOETHE 

 ( Bildh a uerk unst) 



First hundred periods 27.1 



Second " " 32.9 



Third '* " 33.7 



Fourth " " 27.0 



Fifth " " 36.9 



Average for 500 periods 31.5 



235 



