30 L. A. Sherman. 



carrying the movement to an extreme. What the oral sen- 

 tence average with best speakers is it would be unsafe to say 

 until considerable investigation has been made upon that 

 point, — probably not much above or under twelve words. 



After the objective plan had been tried with the above 

 effect, it was applied further upon prose elements and usages 

 with results that can be only enumerated here. It was 

 quickly apparent that our literary prose had passed variously 

 through a coordinating, a subordinating, and a suppressive 

 stage, — just as each child learns to speak, and later to write, 

 its mother English. The first articulate sentences of children 

 are strung together by ands. At the age of eight or earlier, 

 they begin to subordinate unimportant predications by the 

 use of because, or if, or ivJien, and like connectives. Finally, 

 at twelve or over, they will have learned to dispense with a 

 good share of their predicatives, by leaving conjunctions with- 

 out verb, or by participial or absolute constructions. The 

 fact last named cleared up also the remnant of the mystery 

 concerning decrease in sentence weight. The same method 

 of search for elements, and of development through them, 

 was applied to the poetic side of our literature with not less 

 success. It was quickly demonstrated that the peculiar rich- 

 ness of Keats' and Shelley's poetry is due to the abounding 

 use of phrases, — these the product of a long development, 

 — and that Shakespeare's as well as Tennyson's and Brown- 

 ing's power lies chiefly in their use of allegoric thoughts con- 

 densed to single terms. The other Teutonic literatures were 

 found to exhibit also a like course of development and like 

 results. A provisional and pedagogic treatment of the prin- 

 ciples just designated has been given in Chapters VIII.-X., 

 and XX.-XXIII. of the work already mentioned ; but com- 

 plete investigation is in progress by competent hands. 



366 



