12 



L. A. SJierman, 



Adding now the several footings, I found 23.53 3-s the 

 average of the selections, or very nearly half that obtained 

 for the authors of the first group. The comparison thus 

 turned out essentially as expected, furnishing evidence that 

 the English prose sentence had dropped something like half 

 its weight since Shakespeare's times. 



But this array of figures was clearly of further interest. 

 Now that the number of words in consecutive sentences 

 was definitely exhibited, strange facts and features of style 

 were indicated or suggested. The length of one sentence, it 

 was shown, might be echoed unconsciously into the next, as 

 notably in Macaulay's groups of seventeens. Noteworthy 

 was Macaulay's failing for odd, and De Ouincey's for prime, 

 numbers, as also Macaulay's partiality to seven and nine for 

 final digits. But the really remarkable thing was the appar- 

 ently constant sentence average in the respective authors. 

 Could it be possible that stylists as eminent and practised as 

 these are subject to a rigid rhythmic law, from which even by 

 the widest range and variety of sentence lengths and forms 

 they may not escape } At once pushing the suspicion to a 

 proof, I made, first, an extended test in Macaulay's Essays: 

 result, 23 +, the number obtained before; then in Channing : 

 average again, 25. The variation in each hundred periods 

 from these respectively was so slight, it seemed best to make 

 special trial of the Opmm-Eatcr, in which greater fluctuations 

 had above been marked. The averages, of the remaining 

 sentences of the work, taken by hundreds as before, were 

 these : — 



.Sixth hundred 29.09 



Seventh 



Eighth 



Ninth 



Tenth 



Eleventh 



Twelfth 



Thirteenth 



Fourteenth 



30.39 

 32.94 

 33.92 

 32.88 

 34.09 

 34.42 

 29.57 

 38.58 



Fifteenth hundred 



Sixteenth 



Seventeenth 



Eighteenth 



Nineteenth 



Twentieth 



Twenty-first 



Twenty-second 



Remaining twenty-five 



Complete average 2225 periods, 33.65. 



35.32 

 40.29 

 39.29 

 38.12 

 31.24 

 31.42 

 33.57 

 32.09 

 31.16 



