2 G. W. Gerwig 



counted and recorded. A record was also made of the number 

 of sentences found to contain but a single predication. The 

 following sentences will illustrate the method: "There I 

 feel that nothing can befall me in life — no disgrace, no calam- 

 ity (leaving me my eyes) which Nature cannot repair. She 

 heals everything. " In the first period the predications are 

 'feel,' 'can befall,' and 'cannot repair,' — three in number. 

 'Leaving' is merely a participle without copula, and will be 

 omitted from consideration for the present. The second is a 

 simple sentence, 'heals' being the only predication. 



The Tale of Melibeus contains 480 periods. There are in 

 these 480 periods 2507 'predications, or an average of 5.22 

 predications in each sentence. There are also in the 480 peri- 

 ods but twenty simple sentences — a trifle over four per cent. 

 The following are the results from 2500 periods of Macaulay 

 in groups of 500 each: 



1st 50(1 periods 

 2nd 500 periods 

 3rd 500 periods 

 4;th 500 periods 

 5th 500 periods 



Average 2500 periods . . . 2.26 32 



There is but a slight variation between the groups. Other 

 authors were taken in the same way, until it was demonstrated 

 that the average of 500 periods of any author who had achieved 

 a style was approximately the average of his whole work. A 

 record of the investigation into the styles of one hundred repre- 

 sentative authors, embracing averages of about 65,000 periods, 

 is here presented. The average of each hundred periods is 

 given separately. 



In prose, for the sake of uniformity, an attempt was made 

 to select works written in the essay style. An investigation 

 of descriptive or novel styles would perhaps be equally inter- 



18 



