DcvelopDicnt of Form in Literature. 13 



Several other tests were next made in various writers, with 

 essentially like findings. Even an author as far back as 

 Hooker yielded from the first book of the Polity, 725 periods, 

 44.08, 40.84, 37.03, 41.63, 42.40, 45.14, 47.83, for the con- 

 secutive hundreds. Bacon was found to be 28 consistently 

 in the Essays. Milton at first seemed refractory, but was 

 forced to own to no less an average than 60. Dryden reached 

 45, Addison stopped at 37. Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, y//;^zV/j-, 

 Carlyle, Newman, Beecher, Lowell, and Higginson fell into 

 line regularly with the rest. No evidence appearing to the 

 contrary, it seemed likely enough that sentence rhythm was a 

 universal law. At any rate, it was not necessary to delay 

 longer upon what was relatively an unimportant point. 

 There was plenty to do ahead. The right way and the only 

 way to learn the facts and principles of English prose devel- 

 opment was plainly to study the literature objectively, with 

 scalpel and microscope in hand. Yet, with the aid of certain 

 of my students and others, I gave further a little time to the 

 question whether the sentence average was constant in a 

 given author for different works and periods of production. 

 In Macaulay no variation was found between the Milton or 

 the MacJiiavelli and the Pitt Essay ; none between the first 

 and the fifth volume of the History. De Ouincey was seen 

 to have been writing in 1852 and 1857 {''California'' and 

 " China " respectively) the same length of sentence as had 

 been determined from the Opium-Eater {^v^. 1821). Chan- 

 ning likewise had not altered between 18 12 and 1842, and 

 even Carlyle showed no change for worse or better, in respect 

 to sentence proportions, between the Edinburgh Essays and 

 his Frederick the Great. 



On now taking up the main task with some seriousness, I 

 soon found the principal lines along which the English sen- 

 tence had approached its modern simplicity and strength. 

 But the process of following out the various phases of the 

 development appeared so complex and tedious that I was 

 dismayed. It was too much to attempt without cooperation. 

 Having the responsibility as editor of filling the gap between 



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