LIBRARY 
 
 >iTY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 \

 
 RHYTHM 
 
 AS A DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC 
 
 OF 
 PROSE STYLE 
 
 BY 
 
 ABRAM LIPSKY, PH. D. 
 
 ARCHIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 HJDIXED BY R. B. WOODWORTH 
 
 NO. 4, JUNE 1907 
 
 Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology. Vol. XV, No. 4 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE SCIENCE PRESS
 
 C X T E N T S 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 1-2 
 
 LITERATURE 2- 6 
 
 THE FACT OF PROSE RHYTHM 6-8 
 
 Study of Phonographic Records 
 
 Study of Public Speakers 
 
 Composite Scanning 
 
 VARIETIES OF RHYTHM IN DIFFERENT STYLES 9-23 
 
 Scanning by the Writer 
 
 Scanning by Others 
 
 Measures of Reliability 
 
 EXAMPLES OF PROSE RHYTHMS 23-24 
 
 RHYTHM OF PHRASAL SECTIONS 24-27 
 
 PHRASAL RHYTHM IN POETRY 27-28 
 
 MEANS OF PRODUCING PROSE RHYTHM 29-32 
 
 Length of Words 
 
 Choice of Words 
 
 Order of Words 
 
 Figures of Speech 
 
 THOUGHT RHYTHM 33-37 
 
 Parallelism 
 
 Balance of Phrase and Word 
 
 SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH RHYTHM 37-39 
 
 THE CONCEPT "STYLE" 40-41 
 
 CAUSE AND UTILITY OF LANGUAGE RHYTHM. . 41-44
 
 RHYTHM AS A DISTINGUISHING 
 CHARACTERISTIC OF PROSE STYLE 
 
 It would be difficult to find a modern Rhetoric that does not con- 
 tain a few paragraphs on "the rhythm of prose." It would be just 
 as difficult to obtain from those paragraphs a clear idea of what 
 rhythm in prose really is. One of the most explicit statements is: 1 
 
 "Rhythm in prose may be defined as the alternate swelling and 
 lessening of sound at certain intervals. It refers to the general 
 effect of sentences and paragraphs, where the words are chosen and 
 arranged so as not only to express the meaning of the writer, but 
 also to furnish a musical accompaniment which shall at once delight 
 the ear by its sound and help out the sense by its suggestiveness." 
 
 This writer does not tell us whether there is any regularity in 
 the alternate swelling and lessening of sound; nor, if there is, how 
 much. He does not say what are the means by which the rhythm 
 of prose is produced; nor does he, or any other of the writers re- 
 ferred to, explain exactly what they mean by "rhythm." 
 
 When we come upon an allusion in literary criticism to an 
 author's "rhythmical style" we commonly think of an agreeable sense 
 of movement had in reading him. But if we ask ourselves what it 
 is that moves, what makes the difference between a rhythmical and 
 an unrhythmical style, or how the rhythm of one author differs from 
 that of another, we find that our conceptions are exceedingly vague. 
 
 The writer was impelled to enter upon the present study on find- 
 ing himself unable to use the concept "rhythm in prose/' because of 
 its vagueness, in a series of experiments that he had planned for 
 determining the psychology of judgments on literary styles. He had 
 taken, for instance, several versions of Dante's, "There is no greater 
 sorrow than in misery to remember the happy time," and asked about 
 thirty graduate students to arrange them in order of preference and 
 to give reasons for first and last choice. "Because it is smooth," 
 "Because it is rhythmical," "Like the sound of it," "Sounds rough," 
 were among the reasons given. The question arose: What change 
 in a sentence will make a rough one smooth or a smooth one rough ? 
 
 1 De Mille, Elements of Rhetoric. 299.
 
 2 RHYTHM /,V PROSE. 
 
 It seemed necessary to know, what elements, of sound or of sense, 
 go to constitute what is called the rhythm of a piece of writing. 
 
 The phenomenon of rhythm in prose was recognized by the ora- 
 tors and rhetoricians of Greece and Rome, and they gave definite 
 rules for producing it. Aristotle philosophizes concerning the mat- 
 ter in a way suggestive of Herbert Spencer's effort in his well- 
 known essay on style. "That composition which is entirely devoid of 
 rhythm is indefinite," says Aristotle. "The indefinite or unlimited 
 is displeasing and cannot be known. It ought to be limited, only 
 not by meter like verse." "So soon as a definite measure is caught 
 the ear waits for its return." He goes on to specify what kinds of 
 "feet" are most suitable for prose. The "heroic" measure is not 
 suitable because it is too solemn and too remote from the language 
 of conversation; the "trochaic" is too light and tripping. There 
 remains the "paeonic" rhythm, which, though used by many rhetori- 
 cians, had not been defined. It has two forms, - - - and - - - , 
 the first suitable for the beginning of a sentence, the second 
 lor the end. 1 Cicero follows Aristotle in the main, and gives illus- 
 trations from his own orations. 2 
 
 Recent students have found that the ancients wrote as they pleased 
 and theory has to make the best .of it. Blass has "scanned" selected 
 passages from the classical "Kunstprosa" with the aim of disclosing 
 the underlying rhythmical schemes. He leaves ancient theory far 
 behind. 3 Weil disputes Cicero's dictum as to the reason why a 
 certain celebrated oratorical period was greeted with tremendous ap- 
 plause. 4 Norden remarks that "in the antique conception rhythmic 
 prose was identical with periodic." 5 
 
 The subject of prose rhythm has received considerable attention 
 of late years from psychologists. It has been touched upon inci- 
 dentally by investigators of rhythm in general, like Bolton, Meu- 
 mann, McDougal and Stetson ; and directly attacked by Wallin, Marbe 
 and Scott. 
 
 The experimental investigation of rhythm has added to our 
 knowledge on such points as the limits within which irregularities in 
 the time intervals between successive impressions may occur without 
 destroying a rhythm, -on the effect of the rate of succession of im- 
 pressions in facilitating or hindering the arousal of a feeling of 
 rhythm, on the availability of different kinds of impressions for 
 
 1 Aristotle, Rhetoric III, 8. 
 
 2 Cicero, De Oratore. 
 
 i Blass, Die Rhythraen der Attischen Kunstprosa. Leipzig. 1901. 
 * Weil. Order of Words, p. 13, tr. by Super, 1887. 
 s Norden, Die Antike Kunstprosa, p. 42, 1898.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE, 3 
 
 shaping into a rhythm, on the relations between rhythm-perception 
 and physical or mental activities, and so on. But owing to the 
 nature of the stimuli used in these experiments simple sensations, 
 like hammer clicks or light-flashes, few of the detailed results can 
 be used in the study of the rhythm of language, where the rhythmical 
 material is so much more complex in character. There are, however, 
 a few facts of a general nature that are significant for our purpose. 
 
 The definition of rhythm in Baldwin's dictionary seems to com- 
 mit the error of identifying mere repetition with rhythm. 1 "Rhythm 
 is a repeating series of time intervals: events which occur in such a 
 series are said to have rhythm." We have on the other hand the 
 statement of Bolton that a rhythm in speech means a series of 
 groups of sounds. 2 and Ebbinghaus's that rhythm is "an organization 
 of sensations following one another in time, by the combination of 
 several of them into unified groups (not, as is sometimes said, the 
 mere succession of impressions following one another in equal inter- 
 vals of time)." 3 
 
 We are no longer bound, in considering language rhythm, to re- 
 main within the arbitrary limits of literary metrical theory. An 
 increase in the number of elements composing a group in a rhythmi- 
 cal series does not proportionally increase the apparent length of 
 the groups. 4 Rhythm does not depend upon equality of successive 
 time-intervals. Only an approximate equality is necessary. 5 Meu- 
 mann has shown that intervals as long as four or five seconds are 
 very inaccurately estimated, are merely guessed at, while reading. 
 
 Attention plays an important part in the perception of rhythm. 
 This is especially so in the case of subjective rhythmization the 
 feeling of rhythm in an objectively monotonous series of impressions. 
 Different forms of rhythm are felt according as one or another is 
 imagined. Conversely, a rhythmical series of impressions is more 
 easily attended to and better remembered than a structureless series. 6 
 
 The rhythmical material may be a succession of simple sense im- 
 pressions like the auditory and visual sensations employed in labora- 
 tory experiments; auditory sensations that vary in pitch as well as 
 in loudness and duration, as in music; a series of movements as in 
 dancing; or of sounds having meanings, as in language. There is a 
 
 1 Diet, of Philos. and Psychol. Art. "Rhythm." 
 
 2 Bolton, Am. Journal of Psychology, v. 6, p. 158, 1894. 
 Ebbinghaus, Grundzuege der Psychologic, vol. 1, p. 507. 
 * Miner Motor, Visual and Applied Rhythms, p. 36, 1903. 
 
 s Philos Stud., vol. X, p. 404. 
 
 e Mueller and Schumann. Experimented Beitraege zur Untersuchung 
 des Gedaechtnisses. Zeitsch. f. Psychol. und Psysiol. d. Sinnesorg. Bd. VI, 
 1893.
 
 4 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 rhythm of thought distinguishable, if not separable, from the rhythm 
 of language, controlling and supplementing the purely phonetic 
 rhythm. In poetry, phonetic rhythm often overrides thought rhythm. 
 In prose, phonetic rhythm is, on the whole, subordinate to thought 
 rhythm. As the complexity of the rhythmized material increases, ir- 
 regularities in the succession of the simpler stimuli are more and 
 more disregarded. 
 
 "Bhythm appears in thought with simple perception of a number 
 of objects," says James. "Accentuation and emphasis are present in 
 every perception we have. We find it quite impossible to disperse 
 our attention impartially over a number of impressions." 1 When 
 thought moves decidedly in a definite direction under the impulse 
 to become speech, these accentuations and emphases become more dis- 
 tinct. Language fixes them permanently, although they may be felt 
 before becoming embodied in words. 
 
 An experimental investigation of speech rhythm has been made 
 by Wallin. 2 His subjects spoke various pieces of prose and poetry 
 into a phonograph. The records were then reproduced and studied 
 by ear. Durations were measured by reacting with a telegraph key 
 to certain sounds or pauses in the reproduced speech. Intensities and 
 pitches were estimated and grouped by the listener. When in doubt, 
 other listeners were substituted to check his impressions. 
 
 Although the method is open to certain objections the noise of 
 the stylus, and subjective errors in making the estimations, which 
 have been pointed out by Stetson some of the results that especially 
 interest us here may be safely accepted. Wallin found that the chief 
 guide in deciding whether a piece of writing was prose or verse, was 
 the arrangement of the lines to the eye. When verse was printed as 
 prose, or vice versa, the one was often taken for the other. The fol- 
 lowing bit of prose by Bacon was called poetry by a majority of his 
 subjects : 
 
 To the poor Christian that sits bound in the galley, 
 To despairful widows, pensive prisoners, and deposed kings; 
 To them whose fortune runs back and whose spirits mutiny, 
 Unto such death is a redeemer, and the grave a place of rest. 8 
 
 His subjects spoke prose more rapidly than poetry, the averages 
 being 3.14 syllables of poetry per second, and 3.81 of prose 20 per 
 cent, more prose. They spoke 10 per cent, more prose syllables during 
 an expiration than poetry 5.91 of the former and 5.41 of the latter. 
 
 1 Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, p. 284. 
 
 2 Researches on the Rhyfohm of Speech, Studies from the Yale Psycho- 
 logical Laboratory, vol. IX, 1901 
 
 3 Ibid.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 5 
 
 The natural inference from these figures seems to be that equal in- 
 tervals of time in prose may be filled with unequal numbers of unac- 
 cented syllables, the larger number being spoken more rapidly. Per- 
 fect rhythm, measured by perfect equality of time intervals between 
 accents, was but slightly more common in verse than in prose. 
 
 The method employed by Scripture of measuring the physical 
 impression on phonographic discs, although objective in a high degree, 
 is too tedious for pieces of any length. 1 It is imperfect besides, in 
 confusing objective magnitude with subjective impressions. An ac- 
 cent in language means an accent to the mind of the reader or lis- 
 tener, and is wholly relative to adjacent stresses, durations and 
 pitches. A weak sound may be felt as accented if preceded and 
 followed by weaker ones. The degree of difference that shall be 
 judged sufficient to constitute an accent is a subjective matter. It 
 follows, that this rigidly physical method must rely ultimately on the 
 estimate of the listening mind, and cannot claim to be free from 
 subjective errors. 
 
 The good, old process of "scanning," which was employed by Blass 
 in his studies of Greek and Latin prose, has been used by Marbe on 
 the prose of Goethe and Heine. 2 He began by scanning the first and 
 second thousand words of Goethe's "St. Eochusfest" and Heine's 
 "Harzreise" (both travel sketches), while a friend scanned the sec- 
 ond and third thousand. The average number of unaccented sylla- 
 bles per interval between two accents was calculated, and the frequency 
 of each variety of "foot" found in each thousand words. The scan- 
 ning of his friend agreed sufficiently with his own to show that the 
 differences found between Goethe's and Heine's prose were objectively 
 there, and the results from the successive thousands showed that the 
 characteristics of the first thousand might be expected to hold 
 throughout each piece. It was found that Goethe's sketch had a 
 greater number of certain kinds of feet and less of others than did 
 Heine's, and that the average foot was shorter in the former than in 
 the latter. Marbe then scanned a thousand words from each of 
 half a dozen other writings of the same authors and found similar 
 differences. 
 
 Finally, two very suggestive essays by Scott should be mentioned. 1 
 This writer claims to have discovered two styles of vocal change within 
 prose sentences. In one type the voice rises in pitch to the apex of 
 an arc, is held suspended for a time, then descends; in the other it 
 rises, begins to descend and the pause does not enter until it has 
 
 i Elements of Experimental Phonetics, 1902. 
 
 -Rhythmus im Prosa, Giessen, 1904. 
 
 a Modern Language Association Pub. 1905.
 
 6 RHYTHM /AT PROSE. 
 
 descended by the musical interval of a fourth or a minor fourth. 
 Scott's theory is that these inflectional arcs constitute the "feet" of 
 prose rhythm, which are compounded in various ways. He admits 
 that there are other rhythmical elements also, such as stress, alliter- 
 ation, balance of clause and phrase, etc. Scott's observations, it 
 appears, were made on his own reading; he gives no detailed account 
 of them. Stetson has estimated the falling slide at the close of 
 sentences to be an interval of a third or a fourth. 1 
 
 Phonographic recitation records enable one easily to observe the 
 rhythm of prose. Cylinder records of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Speech," 
 of Ingersoll on "Napoleon's Tomb" and of McKinley's "Speech at 
 the Pan- American Exposition," are on the market, spoken, of course, 
 by an elocutionist. The elocutionist's artificiality mars rather than 
 improves these pieces, but their measured character becomes obvious 
 enough. The writer from much listening had them so impressed 
 on his mind, that they ran through his head constantly in the elo- 
 cutionist's voice, and he read them in the elocutionist's manner when 
 he had the written copies before him. It was not difficult to mark 
 on a copy the syllables accented in the phonograph. The rhythm of 
 the first sentence of the Ingersoll selection, for example, is quite dis- 
 tinct. It is here given as marked,' with accents and pauses : 
 
 A little while ago | I stood at the tomb of the first Napoleon | 
 a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold | where rested at last the ashes 
 of that restless man.|| 
 
 Xo measurements or calculations were made on these specimens. 
 The chief result of the study of them was to accustom the ear to 
 detect beats in prose. The fact of the existence of rhythm in prose 
 became clear and certain. It is easy to "beat time" while each 
 of the phrases separated by the vertical lines in the above sentence 
 is spoken. 
 
 In listening to public speakers, one is usually so interested in the 
 meaning of the discourse that one does not observe the rhythm of its 
 sound, but if the language is a foreign one and unintelligible there 
 is nothing but the sound to attend to, and its rhythmical character 
 becomes apparent. The writer listened to a sermon of which he did 
 not understand a word, in the Russian church in New York. He was 
 able to beat time for short stretches, though constantly thrown out 
 at pauses, where the movement broke up and varied. But the delivery 
 
 i Harvard Psychl. Studies. 1903.
 
 RHYTHM IN' PROSE. 
 
 of some American public speakers is so markedly rhythmical as to 
 become annoying in its unvaried chant. With a little effort, it is 
 possible to abstract the attention from the meaning of what is said 
 and beat time. The writer has done it very often. 
 
 That authors of marked individuality of style differ from one an- 
 other in the quality of rhythm is a commonplace of literary criticism. 
 Every sensitive reader feels the difference between such writers as 
 Scott and Stevenson, Macaulay and Carlyle, De Quincey and Emerson, 
 Dickens and Thackeray, Spencer and Huxley. What is at the bottom 
 of these differences? In poetry different rhythms are produced by 
 various metrical forms that may be schematically exhibited. Can 
 anything like this be done for prose? 
 
 The following experiment to test this question was made. A num- 
 ber of mimeograph copies were made of selections from Scott, Steven- 
 son, Thackeray, Carlyle, Ruskin, Hawthorne and Lotze (transla- 
 tion). The selections were arranged as if by one author in consecu- 
 tive paragraphs, each of about 130 words. One person read aloud 
 while another marked the syllables that to his hearing were accented. 
 Six markings were thus obtained. In going over the copies after- 
 wards, three or more marks on a syllable were considered an accent. 
 
 The most surprising result of the experiment was that only one 
 of the persons engaged in it was sure, when asked, that the selections 
 were by different authors. The others had not noticed the fact. One 
 declared they were by the same author. The selections had, of course, 
 purposely been chosen so as to be on congruous topics. 
 
 More syllables were marked towards the close than at the be- 
 ginning, showing that the discriminativeness of the markers increased 
 as they proceeded. There was a high degree of agreement among the 
 markers but the selections differed from one another in the proportion 
 of unaccented to accented syllables. 
 
 A couple of sentences with the markings gathered from the several 
 sheets are here given : 
 
 15 5 4 415 
 
 You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true 
 
 48 546 
 
 action or passion out af your modern English religion. You had 
 
 5 4 6 53432 
 
 better get rid of the smoke and the organ pipes both, leave them 
 
 56 5 6 63 
 
 and the Gothic windows and the painted glass to the property man, 
 
 5 134 614 5 
 
 give up your carburetted hydrogen ghost in one healthy expiration 
 
 26 5 
 
 and look after Lazarus at the door-step. 
 
 The agreement is close enough to justify the assumption that the 
 scanning of one individual having "a good ear," would be just as 
 valid for the practical purpose in view as the result obtained by add-
 
 8 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 ing markings of several persons. There is considerable variation in 
 the scanning of good poetry by scholars. These individual variations, 
 however, are insignificant beside the large differences due to different 
 types of rhythm, like blank verse and hexameter, shown by the scan- 
 ning of all alike. One person's scanning of a number of poetical 
 specimens would be sure to show these typical differences, however 
 it might vary in detail from the scanning of another. The assump- 
 tion is that if there are distinct rhythmical types in prose, the same 
 procedure there should give valid results. 
 
 The term "scanning" applied to prose obviously does not mean 
 quite the same process as that gone through by the school-boy who 
 scans Virgil. The school-boy is taught that the poetry he is to scan 
 consists of two kinds of syllables arranged according to definite rules 
 and his task is to find how each line conforms to the given pattern. 
 The pattern being flexible within definite limits, the boy's ingenuity 
 is expended in accounting for seeming irregularities in the line be- 
 fore him. But we never are provided with a ready-made pattern for 
 any piece of prose. Scanning prose, then, must mean marking accents 
 wherever we feel them. Here a certain amount of vagueness enters. 
 Not having a pattern to guide us, which accents shall we mark? For 
 there are accents of various degrees of intensity. 
 
 A good poem sets the tune in the first line so unmistakably 
 that the succeeding lines, even though they be somewhat uncertain 
 rhythmically, are drawn by the reader into the rhythm suggested 
 at the beginning. 1 Prose has no lines like those of poetry, and its 
 rhythmical units certainly do not follow each other with any such 
 regularity as do the lines of poetry. Nevertheless, a phrase in prose 
 frequently suggests a rhythm as distinctly as does a line of poetry, 
 and rhythms are echoed in prose as in verse. 
 
 The tendency to accommodate the time of a syllable in prose to fit 
 the movement of the phrase in which it occurs, may be shown by a 
 simple experiment. Give a person the sentence, "You are a wicked 
 man," to read aloud, and then, "You are a bad man." There will 
 be a distinct lingering on the word "bad." So in the second of the 
 sentences, "How do you do this morning?" and. "How do you do 
 this morning?" where the first "do" is emphasized, "you" is pro- 
 longed. There may be a shifting of accent from one syllable to an- 
 other, as may be seen on comparing the two sentences, "That judg- 
 ment was unjust," and "It was an unjust judgment." In the first, 
 "unjust" is accented on the second syllable; in the second, on the 
 first. 2 
 
 1 Lanier, Science of Eiig. Verse, p. 10, 1880. 
 
 2 I>ewis, C. M., Principles of Eug. Verse, p. 1, 1906.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 9 
 
 In order to determine whether various prose styles differ from 
 one another in accentual rhythm the method of scanning was em- 
 ployed, as follows: A thousand words (or more, if needed to reach 
 a full stop) were counted from the works of different authors, and 
 "scanned" by the writer. The whole number of syllables was counted, 
 also the accented and the unaccented syllables. The average number 
 of unaccented syllables between a pair of accented syllables was cal- 
 culated. Then the frequency of each type of "foot" was counted;- 
 
 that is, the number of times the combination , , 
 
 , - - - etc., occurred. Sentence stops were disregarded. 
 The procedure here described, it will be seen, is the same as that em- 
 ployed by Marbe. 
 
 To illustrate: The first 1,004 words of Cooper's Red Rover con- 
 tained 1,593 syllables, 498 were accented in scanning, 1,095 were 
 left unaccented, average unaccented interval 2.20 syllables, average 
 deviation .99, average word 1.59 syllables. The distribution of groups 
 or "feet" was as follows : 
 
 00 
 OtJ 
 
 120 
 
 Since the number of syllables in the different selections scanned 
 varied, distributions were calculated for a common base of 1,000 sylla- 
 bles. The above accordingly gave: 
 
 20.75 
 75.48 
 96.23 
 
 72.96 
 
 35.85 
 9.43 
 1.88 
 
 Table I gives the frequencies of the various types of "foot" for 
 35 specimens scanned by the writer. The figures over the columns 
 
 indicate types of "foot" : , 1 =. , 2 = , 
 
 3 = , etc. In the left-hand column of the Table are 
 
 given authors and titles. These are in full : 
 COOPER Red Rover 
 
 BAHRIE Little Minister 
 
 STEVENSON Old Pacific Capital 
 
 KIPLING In the Matter of a Private 
 
 Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney 
 
 Man Who Was
 
 10 
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 JAMES, H. 
 HOWELLS 
 
 DICKENS 
 KUSKIN 
 
 MILTON 
 
 BBOWNE 
 
 ADDISON 
 
 JOHNSON 
 
 DE QUINCEY 
 
 CABLYLE 
 
 MACAULAY 
 
 LAMB 
 
 EMERSON 
 
 HOLMES 
 
 BURKE 
 
 WEBSTER 
 
 INGERSOLL 
 
 THE TIMES 
 
 THE JOURNAL 
 
 THE TIMES 
 
 SPENCER 
 
 HUXLEY 
 
 DARWIN 
 JAMES, W. 
 TENNYSON 
 
 Watch and Ward 
 The Ambassadors 
 The Lady of the Aroostook 
 Landlord at Lion's Head 
 Nicholas Nickleby 
 Modern Painters 
 Sesame and Lilies 
 Tenure of Kings and Magistrates 
 Urn Burial 
 Essay on Milton 
 Essay on Shakespeare 
 Essay on Shakespeare 
 Hero Worship: Shakespeare 
 Boswell's Life of Johnson 
 Old and New Schoolmaster 
 Nature 
 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 
 On Conciliation With America 
 Character of Washington 
 Heretics 
 Editorial 
 Editorial 
 
 Keport of an Accident 
 Principles of Psychology 
 Physiography, Chap. I 
 Preface to the above 
 Expression of Emotions 
 Principles of Psychology: Habit 
 The Princess: Prologue (blank verse) 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 (0) 
 
 (1) 
 
 (2) 
 
 (3) 
 
 (4) 
 
 (5) 
 
 (6) (7) (8) 
 
 C'OOPEB 
 
 20.75 
 
 75.48 
 
 96.23 
 
 72.96 
 
 35.85 
 
 9.43 
 
 1.88 
 
 BARBIE 
 
 36.34 
 
 120.08 
 
 98.75 
 
 54 30 
 
 24.49 
 
 1027 
 
 2 37 
 
 STEVENSON 
 
 39.49 
 
 140.01 
 
 76.10 
 
 8544 
 
 16.51 
 
 3.59 
 
 71 
 
 KIPLING 
 I. M. P 
 
 . . . .43.72 
 
 126.30 
 
 100.63 
 
 60.37 
 
 22.90 
 
 5 53 
 
 69 69 
 
 j. K. 11 
 
 29.48 
 
 97.15 
 
 106.53 
 
 61.64 
 
 26 80 
 
 8 71 
 
 67 
 
 M w. w. . . . 
 
 25.92 
 
 93.96 
 
 93.96 
 
 63 30 
 
 28 51 
 
 8 42 
 
 5 81 64 
 
 JAMES, H. 
 W. W 
 
 .... 30.91 
 
 108.54 
 
 102.36 
 
 68.01 
 
 24 73 
 
 6 87 
 
 68 
 
 Amb 
 
 31.32 
 
 95.35 
 
 112.05 
 
 61 24 
 
 23 66 
 
 11 13 
 
 2 08 
 
 HOWELLS 
 L. A. 
 
 ..18.92 
 
 87.62 
 
 91.13 
 
 72.90 
 
 27.33 
 
 .S1 
 
 3 ftO 1.RO 7O
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 11 
 
 (0) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (g) 
 
 L. L. H 16.60 84.47 109.74 69.31 26.71 6.49 2.16 .72 
 
 DICKENS 29.88 118.19 95.61 63.08 26.56 5.97 .66 
 
 RUSKIN 
 
 M. P 52.54 141.29 87.33 66.74 16.33 7.10 1.42 
 
 S. L 30.73 95.53 96.79 64.09 30.73 9.15 .65 .65 
 
 MILTON 28.93 107.00 78.74 82.10 26.24 6.73 .67 
 
 BROWNE 24.58 112.69 116.11 62,83 21.85 4.78 .68 
 
 ADDISON 19.96 88.87 89.51 66.33 36.06 8.37 3.86 
 
 JOHNSON 8.56 77.72 87.51 78.94 37.94 6.73 3.06 
 
 DE QUINCEY 16.83 89.76 92.56 64.51 38.14 8.97 2.24 .56 
 
 CARLYLE 33.36 116.45 102.83 63.33 19.06 6.81 2.72 .68 
 
 MACAULAY 20.86 73.67 87.36 73.02 29.34 11.08 4.56 3.91 
 
 LAMB 17.95 85.42 100.27 60.04 33.42 11.14 2.47 .61 
 
 EMERSON 23.76 106.24 111.14 65.00 23.06 9.08 
 
 HOLMES 22.04 89.58 105.93 63.99 27.72 8.53 .71 1.42 .71 
 
 BURKE 15.31 75.28 98.25 74.00 33.81 9.57 1.91 
 
 WEBSTEK 26.78 87.22 88.46 71.02 31.77 8.09 3.73 .62 .62 
 
 INGERSOLL 26.67 135.48 91.26 55.45 28.78 7.72 1.40 
 
 THE Times 17.44 81.61 96.56 64.79 33.64 9.34 3.11 1.24 .62 
 
 THE Journal 26.22 113.16 101.43 61.41 23.46 5.52 3.45 1.38 
 
 THE Times, R 35.00 93.60 98.93 78.38 22.83 3.80 2.28 
 
 SPENCER 20.36 51.45 75.04 63.78 34.30 23.58 5.89 3.21 1.07 
 
 HUXLEY 
 
 Phys. Ch. 1 38.30 111.55 120.96 57.12 22.84 4.69 
 
 Pref 20.46 84.28 105.35 65.61 34.31 5.41 4.21 
 
 DARWIN 34.59 91.20 111.96 66.04 23.27 7.54 1.25 .62 
 
 JAMES, W 28.42 93.86 116.99 65.43 23.13 7.27 1.32 
 
 "THE PRINCESS" ...22.68 286.52 28.72 65.01 6.04 2.26 .75 
 
 AVERAGES 26.85 98.52 98.95 66.81,27.53 8.80 2.11 
 
 (excluding the last) 
 
 Table II gives the average unaccented interval in syllables, the 
 average deviation from this average, and the average word-length 
 in syllables, for each of the selections. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 Av. Int. A. D. Av. W. 
 
 COOPER 2.20 .99 1.58 
 
 BAHRIE 1.87 .98 1.26 
 
 STEVENSON 1.76 .97 1.37 
 
 KIPLING I. M. P 1.77 .95 1.40 
 
 I. K. M 1.97 .91 1.43 
 
 M. W. W 2.09 1.02 1.52 
 
 JAMBS, H. W. W 1.91 .92 1.44 
 
 Amb 1.96 .92 1.42 
 
 HOWELLS L. A 2.18 .98 1.42 
 
 L. L. H 2.13 .9U 1.38
 
 12 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 DICKENS , 
 
 , 1.89 
 
 .94 
 
 1.46 
 
 KUSKIN M. P , 
 
 , 1.67 
 
 .98 
 
 1.35 
 
 S. L , 
 
 , 2.01 
 
 .96 
 
 1.46 
 
 MILTON 
 
 1.99 
 
 .93 
 
 1.47 
 
 BBOWNB 
 
 1.89 
 
 .85 
 
 1.43 
 
 ADDISON 
 
 2.17 
 
 1.02 
 
 1.50 
 
 JOHNSON 
 
 2.31 
 
 1.00 
 
 1.59 
 
 DB QUINCEY 
 
 2.17 
 
 1.01 
 
 1.66 
 
 CABLYLE 
 
 1.87 
 
 .94 
 
 1.44 
 
 MACAULAY 
 
 2.29 
 
 1.30 
 
 1.51 
 
 LAMB 
 
 2.19 
 
 1.00 
 
 1.50 
 
 EMEBSON 
 
 1.95 
 
 .85 
 
 1.42 
 
 HOLMES 
 
 2.08 
 
 .94 
 
 1.39 
 
 BUBKB 
 
 2.24 
 
 .97 
 
 1.56 
 
 WEBSTER 
 
 2.13 
 
 1.13 
 
 1.53 
 
 INGEBSOLL 
 
 1.85 
 
 .96 
 
 1.40 
 
 THE Times, Ed 
 
 2.23 
 
 .99 
 
 1.54 
 
 THE Journal, Ed 
 
 1.93 
 
 93 
 
 1.44 
 
 THE Times, R 
 
 1.95 
 
 .93 
 
 1.42 
 
 SPENCEB 
 
 2.56 
 
 1.01 
 
 1.76 
 
 HDXLEY Ch. I 
 
 1.80 
 
 .88 
 
 1.42 
 
 Pref 
 
 2.13 
 
 95 
 
 1.63 
 
 DABWIN 
 
 1.95 
 
 .91 
 
 1.57 
 
 JAMES, W 
 
 1.97 
 
 .86 
 
 1.50 
 
 "THE PBINCESS" , 
 
 1.40 
 
 .71 
 
 1.29 
 
 A cursory glance at Table I shows that each selection has a foot 
 of maximum frequency, either (1) or (2) ; that the curves rise more 
 steeply than they descend; that there is considerable variety of shape 
 in the curves. A few typical ones have been plotted and are given in 
 the accompanying charts. The points to be noted are : the acute and 
 the rounded summit, the steep and the gradual descent, the summit 
 in (1) and the summit in (2), the double apex or dip (Milton and 
 Stevenson). 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss the figures presented in the pre- 
 ceding tables, it will be desirable to give some evidence of their reli- 
 ability; first, as measures of objective fact; second, as typical of the 
 whole work from which each selection was taken. 
 
 The first thousand words of Cooper's "Red Rover" were scanned 
 by two persons besides the writer. Both were students at Teacher's 
 College, Columbia University, but one had never scanned poetry. 
 The numerical results are given, together with those from the writer's 
 scansion, for comparison, in Table III.
 
 13 
 
 \STVMON 
 IZiQOO A.L- 
 
 0123456 f
 
 14 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 TABLE III. 
 COOPER'S "Red Rover." (1st 1,000 words.) 
 
 (0) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Av. Int. A. D. 
 
 A. L. 
 
 20.75 
 
 75.48 
 
 96.23 
 
 72.96 
 
 35.85 
 
 9.43 
 
 1.88 
 
 2.20 
 
 .99 
 
 M. R. 
 
 25.82 
 
 79.37 
 
 98.12 
 
 71.25 
 
 33.12 
 
 8.75 
 
 2.50 
 
 2.13 
 
 .99 
 
 L. T. 
 
 8.75 
 
 56.25 
 
 82.50 
 
 71.25 
 
 40.62 
 
 14.37 
 
 6.25 
 
 2.54 
 
 1.09 
 
 The agreement between the first two is close. The third vanes 
 from the other two, but it will be noticed that the maximum is in 
 the same column. The low number in column (0), and the high 
 numbers in columns (5) and (6), indicate that this person omitted 
 a great many accents that were marked by the first two. 
 
 Stevenson's "Old Pacific Capital" was scanned by C. W., who had 
 never scanned poetry. The next table ^ives the result, together with 
 the corresponding figures from Table I. C. W. scanned the second 
 thousand words; A. L. the first thousand. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 STEVENSON'S "Old Pacific Capital" (1st & 2nd 1,000). 
 
 Av. AT. 
 
 (0) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Int. A.D. W. 
 
 A. L 39.49 140.01 76.10 85.44 16.51 3.59 .71 1.76 .97 1.37 
 
 C. W. 57.67 122.46 79.74 76.18 18.51 7.12 .71 1.42 1.74 .98 1.38 
 
 The two scansions give widely divergent figures in columns (0) 
 and (1). Now, it will be observed that the number of (0)'s marked 
 by C. W. is far in excess of that given for any writer by A. L. in 
 Table I. It is also more than double the number marked by M. R. 
 in the Cooper selection. It seems a fair inference that C. W. was ab- 
 normal in accenting successive syllables. C. W.'s manner of speaking 
 supports this inference. It is slow and deliberate, with strong em- 
 phasis, always noticed by new acquaintances. If we throw in a few 
 unaccented syllables here and there so as to reduce (0) to more nor- 
 mal size, (1) will rise proportionally. It should be noticed that the 
 high frequency of (1) and the relatively high frequency of (3) appear 
 in both records. 
 
 Henry James' "Watch and Ward" was scanned by K, graduate 
 student of English.
 
 . RHYTHM IN PROSE. 15 
 
 TABLE V. 
 JAMES' "Watch and Ward" (same section) . 
 
 (0) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) A.Int. A.D. 
 
 A. L 30.91 108.54 102.36 68.01 24.73 6.87 .68 1.91 .92 
 
 K 33.61 109.07 93.98 66.54 26.06 8.91 1.37 1.92 .97 
 
 We observe here that the maxima are in the same column and the 
 general agreement good. A piece of prose having a large excess of 
 one kind of "foot," we may assume, will have a different rhythmical 
 character from one with an excess of another kind. Its rhythm will 
 be greatly colored by the predominant type. Hence agreement among 
 different markers in marking the most frequent "foot," indicates 
 agreement in feeling the predominant rhythm. 
 
 The most frequent "foot," it has been noted, is always in column 
 (1) or (2). These two intervals are radically of different type. 
 Foot (1) is two-rhythm iambic or trochaic; foot (2) is three- 
 rhythm anapaestic or dactyllic. Foot (3), on the other hand, may 
 be the result of negligence in marking foot (1), as a little consid- 
 eration will show. Similarly, foot (4) may be due to neglect of ad- 
 jacent (l)'s and (2)'s, and foot (4), to neglect of successive (2)'s. 
 One would expect the scansion of an inexperienced person to show a 
 greater number of the long intervals than the scansion of a person 
 who had marked a' large number of pieces. The scansion of three of 
 the markers illustrates this point. But the opposite may happen. 
 The inexperienced marker may mark too minutely, marking word- 
 accents instead of sentence-accents. This seems to have been done 
 by (M. K.). 
 
 As to the extent to which the figures in Table I may be taken to 
 be typical for the piece of writing as a whole from which each selec- 
 tion of a thousand words was taken, some evidence will be found in 
 Table VI and VII. 
 
 Each of the selections named in the first column - of Table VI 
 was divided in half, and the different types of foot in each half were 
 counted just as they had been in the wholes. The halves ranged in size 
 between seven and eight hundred syllables. The figures in the table 
 have been reduced to a common denominator of 500. 
 
 In Table VII are given the figures resulting from L. T.'s scansion 
 of the first and second consecutive thousand words of Cooper's "Eed 
 Rover."
 
 16 
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 TABLE VI. 
 
 
 (0) 
 
 (1) 
 
 (2) 
 
 (3) 
 
 (4) 
 
 (5) 
 
 KIPLIX I. K. M. . . . 
 
 ... 17 
 
 47 
 
 59 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 IS 
 
 54 
 
 r,-j 
 
 28 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 Rt'SKlx S. L 
 
 . . . 15 
 
 49 
 
 51 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 S 
 
 
 15 
 
 46 
 
 4.-, 
 
 33 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 MlLTOX 
 
 .. . 19 
 
 .VJ 
 
 37 
 
 50 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 10 
 
 58 
 
 44 
 
 35 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 BHOW.NK 
 
 ... 15 
 
 57 
 
 60 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 9 
 
 55 
 
 56 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 CARLYC.E 
 
 ... 13 
 
 57 
 
 53 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 2- 
 
 
 19 
 
 6tt 
 
 47 
 
 34 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 LAMB 
 
 ... 11 
 
 46 
 
 50 
 
 29 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 30 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 EMEKXOX 
 
 . .. 10 
 
 58 
 
 56 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 49 
 
 55 
 
 35 
 
 14 
 
 ft 
 
 IXGEUSOLL 
 
 ... 12 
 
 73 
 
 42 
 
 26 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 14 
 
 61 
 
 48 
 
 29 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 SPEXOEK 
 
 ... 10 
 
 24 
 
 39 
 
 30 
 
 ].- 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 35 
 
 33 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 HUXLEY Pref 
 
 ... 10 
 
 37 
 
 50 
 
 31 
 
 15 
 
 o 
 
 
 8 
 
 37 
 
 43 
 
 27 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 TABLE VII. 
 
 COOPER'S "Red Rover" (L. T.). 
 
 (0) 
 
 (i) 
 
 (4) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (7) 
 
 1st 1,000 . . . 
 
 . .875 
 
 56.25 
 
 82.50 
 
 71.25 
 
 40.6? 
 
 14.37 
 
 6 25 
 
 
 2nd. 1,000... 
 
 ..6.79 
 
 56.23 
 
 78.48 
 
 69.83 
 
 42.02 
 
 19.16 
 
 4.32 
 
 .61 
 
 Let us now return to Table I. The selections were taken from 
 authors of the most diverse styles. Then- \v.;s. of course, no need of 
 establishing the fact of the widest diversities by experiments in ap- 
 preciation. That Stevenson's style, for example, is extremely differ- 
 ent from Cooper's will be disputed r>\ no one. Innumerable printed 
 opinions have given expression to this judgment. A similar consen- 
 sus of opinion may be confidently assumed as to the fact of diversity 
 between such styles as that of Euskin's "Modern Painters" and that 
 of Lamb's "Essays of Elia," between Burke and Ingersoll, between 
 Herbert Spencer and William James, between Addison and Carlyle, 
 between the Times and the Journal. 
 
 The figures in the table, so far as these very dissimilar styles are 
 concerned, at least, vary in sympathy with the estimate of literary 
 criticism. Carlyle and Addison are a strongly contrasted pair. The 
 epithets applied most often to Carlyle's style are "vigorous" and
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 17 
 
 "emphatic," while Addison's writing is characterized as "smooth" 
 and "urbane." To a person scanning styles such as these two, the 
 difference is felt to be one between strong or distinct, and weak and 
 vague accentuation. One scanning a vaguely accentuated style will 
 pass over a relatively large number of syllables without marking an 
 accent. In a strongly accentuated style the accents marked are 
 numerous and close together. This is shown in the table by the 
 great excess of (4)'s, (5)'s and (6)'s in Addison over Carlyle, and the 
 excess of (0)'s in Carlyle over Addison. 
 
 Similar differences may be seen in the table between Burke and 
 Ingersoll, Spencer and James, Cooper and Stevenson, the Times and 
 the Journal. Comparing the figures in column (0) with one another, 
 and those in columns (4), (5), and (6), we should class Lamb, De 
 Quincey, Johnson and Howells with Addison; and Barrie, Kipling, 
 Browne, H. James, Euskin M. P., with Carlyle. 
 
 We now pass to consider columns (1) and (2). These two 
 columns, as has been remarked before, represent radically different 
 types of rhythm. "Iambic" or "trochaic" with reference to (1), and 
 "anapaestic" or "dactyllic" with reference to (2), are objectionable 
 terms ; both because no distinctions between "iambic" and "trochaic," 
 or "anapaestic" and "dactyllic" were made in scanning, and because 
 these terms carry inplications of classical prosodic theory that are in- 
 applicable. The term "duple" for the shorter foot, and "triple" for 
 the longer, will be used. Each of these may be again characterized, 
 if necessary, as "rising" or "falling," according as the accent comei 
 last or first in the foot. 
 
 Taking two contrasted styles like Ruskin's "Modern Painters" 
 and Lamb's "Essays," we note that the one has a large excess of 
 (l)'s over (2)'s, the other of (2)'s over (l)'s. Ruskin's style, then, 
 we should say is markedly duple in this selection; Lamb's triple. 
 For similar reason^ we would affirm that the styles of Stevenson, 
 Barrie, Dickens, Milton, Carlyle, Ingersoll, the Journal, Kipling's 
 "In the Matter of a Private," exhibit marked duple rhythm; while 
 Huxley, Darwin, W. James, H. James in "The Ambassadors," 
 Howells, Holmes, Kipling in "The Incarnation of Krishna Mul- 
 vaney," have a predominant triple rhythm. The degree of duple or 
 triple should be estimated by the degree of excess of (l)'s over (2)'s 
 or vice versa. But low amounts of both (as in the case of Spencer) 
 even though there be a considerable excess of one over the other can- 
 not constitute a rhythm, for they may both be scattered through- 
 out the piece of writing as isolated groups of syllables, not as groups 
 of "feet." Large amounts of both, on the other hand (as in the case 
 of Browne), even though neither predominate, indicate rhythm, a 
 mingling or alternation of duple and triple.
 
 18 
 
 RHYTHM /A' PROSE. 
 
 in 
 
 P 
 
 B 
 
 o 
 
 CQ 
 
 g 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 EH 
 
 P 
 
 PQ 
 
 2 
 
 ^> 
 
 PH 
 O 
 
 CQ 
 o 
 W 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 H 
 CO 
 
 I 
 
 pq
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 19 
 
 CO 
 
 O 
 
 I 
 
 g 1 
 
 y o 
 
 PH ^ 
 
 w 
 w 
 
 O 
 i^-( 
 
 H 
 P 
 
 PQ 
 
 2 
 
 H 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 PM 
 O 
 
 125 
 
 8 
 
 is 
 
 C/5 
 
 PQ 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 W 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 hH 
 
 (K 
 
 SI 
 PQ
 
 20 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 In the best of duple rhythms there will be found a certain amount 
 of (2)'s. "The Princess," which is duple rhythm by a great artist, is 
 instructive on this point. Some of the (2)'s there are due to syl- 
 lables intended to be hurried or slurred in reading. Others arise from 
 the substitution here and there of a duple falling for a duple ris- 
 ing foot a permissible procedure in blank verse which brings 
 the unaccented syllables of two feet together. Amid triple rhythm, 
 by the opposite process of lengthening syllables, duple feet may be 
 inserted without breaking the rhythm. 
 
 The figures in column (3) are to be interpreted in two ways. 
 They indicate partly failure to mark accents in successive duple feet. 
 This point, too, is illustrated in "The Princess." It probably ac- 
 counts for the large number of (3)'s in Milton and Stevenson. But 
 (3)'s to a large extent constitute a distinct type of rhythm. It will 
 be remembered that Aristotle recommended this type, which he 
 called the "paeonic," as the most suitable for prose. A few phrases 
 of English from the selections that were scanned will show the char- 
 acter of this foot. 
 
 In the first from Macaulay's "Boswell," the (3)'s are alternated 
 quite regularly with other intervals: 
 
 All the caprices of his temper, all the illusions of his vanity, all 
 his castles in the air. 
 
 The next is from Johnson : 
 He sacrifices virtue to convenience. 
 
 And this from Burke: 
 
 If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the form 
 of government, religion would have given it a complete effect. 
 
 This type of foot seems to be comparatively numerous in Burke, 
 Webster, Johnson, Macaulay, The Times reporter, and "The Lady of 
 the Aroostook." 
 
 Column (4) has already been discussed in connection with column 
 (0). It does not represent a distinct type, but is a resultant of weak 
 and vague accentuation, or may be resolved into shorter feet. The 
 same may be said of the columns beyond (4). 
 
 The assumption has been made once or twice above that a large 
 amount of a particular type of foot in a piece of writing indicates the 
 presence of a rhythm of that type. The assumption may be tested by 
 actual counting. This was done for portions of a few of the se- 
 lections. The first 200 feet of Stevenson, Barrie, Ruskin (M. P.), 
 Cooper and Macaulay were plotted and counted in the following man- 
 ner: 
 
 A dot was placed one unit above the base line for each foot of type 
 (0), 2 units above for every (1), 3 above for every (2), etc., separated 
 horizontally by units of space. Starting at the beginning of the
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 21 
 
 selection, each foot was given a dot on its appropriate altitude, the 
 dots succeeding each other in the same order as the feet in the prose. 
 The dots were connected by straight lines. The same type of foot 
 repeated, gave an unbroken horizontal line. A change from one 
 type to another appeared as an oblique line. By counting the 
 dots in the horizontal lines at any altitude we get a measure of the 
 amount of rhythm of that type. Single occurrences appear in the 
 diagram as angles. 
 
 The count gave the following results : 
 
 TABLE VIII. 
 
 
 Duple Rhythm 
 per cent. 
 
 Triple Rhythm 
 per cent. 
 
 STEVENSON 
 
 26 
 
 5 
 
 BABRIE 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 RUSKIN 
 
 22 
 
 4 
 
 MACADLAY 
 
 12.5 
 
 13 
 
 COOPER 
 
 8 
 
 13.5 
 
 
 
 
 In the Stevenson prose, that is to say, 26 per cent, of all the feet 
 occurred in groups of two or more, and were of the duple type; 
 5 per cent, occurred in groups of two or more and were of the triple 
 type. In Cooper's prose the duple feet that occurred in groups of 
 two or more were only 8 per cent., while the triple feet so occurring 
 were 13.5 per cent, of all the feet. The 200 feet that were counted 
 comprised about 400 words. 
 
 It should be observed that although the method of counting above 
 described probably gives a fair comparative measure of the amount 
 of rhythm in each passage, it by no means gives an absolutely correct 
 measure. The angles in the diagram may form parts of a complex 
 rhythmical pattern. The intrusion of feet of diverse types is fre- 
 quent, as we have seen, even in poetry which is theoretically all in one 
 rhythm. A regular alternation, besides, may be rhythmical as well 
 as a uniform repetition. Each alternating pair then forms one com- 
 plex group which is repeated. A phrase like this of Ruskin's, for in- 
 stance : 
 
 "into fantastic semblances of fortress towers," 
 
 would not give a horizontal line in the diagram, but it appears to be 
 rhythmical. 
 
 Our next inquiry is whether a writer can be known by his rhythm, 
 as measured in Tables I and II, in everything he writes. The list 
 of works scanned includes two by Ruskin, three by Kipling, two by 
 Howells, two by James, and two by Huxley (the first chapter ati'l 
 the preface).
 
 22 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 Ruskin's "Modern Painters" differs very much in Table I from his 
 "Sesame and Lilies." The one is highly accentuated, with a great 
 number of duple feet, the other shows moderate accentuation, with a 
 slight preponderance of triple feet, and more than the average of 
 both (4)'s and (0)'s which is exceptional. These figures seem to 
 conform to the impression made by the two styles on at least one 
 reader. The passage from "Modern Painters" is extraordinary proae 
 a description of sun-rise in the Alps and a palpable effort at 
 rhythmical writing. "Sesame and Lilies" is didactic, a homily to 
 young ladies on their duties and privileges. The one almost breaks 
 into song; the other is uneven and spasmodic. 
 
 Kipling's three stories show three different types of rhythm 
 duple, triple and mixed. Readers of Kipling will not be surprised 
 at this. There may be characteristics in his style that would enable 
 one to distinguish his work from another writer's without knowing 
 the authors, yet nothing could be plainer than that some of hia 
 stories move very differently from others. Compare for instance two 
 such extreme kinds as "The Big Drunk Draf" with "An Habitation 
 Enforced." 
 
 Huxley's Chapter I shows a greater amount of accentuation than 
 his Preface, though the predominant type of rhythm is the same in 
 both. The two selections differ in 'the character of their matter. The 
 Preface discusses the place of Physiography as a science, its import- 
 ance in an educational curriculum and the best ways of teaching it. 
 The thought is strong, the vocabulary abstract and polysyllabic. It is 
 addressed to men of science. In Chapter 1, technicalities are aban- 
 doned and the author faces the task of instructing the average man 
 in the elements of science. The movement becomes comparatively 
 light and rapid. 
 
 The extracts from both Howells and Henry James were chosen 
 with the view of testing whether there had been a change of style 
 form early to late works. The critics make much of a difference in 
 Henry James' style. The table shows that there has been a change 
 from duple rhythm in "Watch annd Ward" to triple rhythm in "The 
 Ambassadors." The average foot has lengthened slightly; the aver- 
 age deviation is exactly the same; the average word is a trifle shorter. 
 The relatively high number of (5)'s indicates greater vagueness of 
 accentuation. The change from predominant duple to predominant 
 triple rhythm despite the slightly shortened word length is significant, 
 for it shows that the change has been brought about by other means 
 word-arrangement, or thought-form. 
 
 Howells' later work, "The Landlord at Lion's Head," shows a 
 greater amount of triple rhythm than his earlier, "Lady of the Arooa- 
 took." The average foot, the average deviation and the average
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 23 
 
 word have nevertheless all decreased. There are fewer (3)'s, (4)'s, 
 (5)'s and (6)'s. All these .facts seem to indicate, that Howells' 
 style has become more decidedly triple rhythmically, and in general 
 more clean-cut and distinct. 
 
 It appears from these comparisons that a writer's style is not 
 the same rhythmically in different works, whether of the same or 
 of different periods of his career. And this generalization based upon 
 a count, from which the possibility of subjective error is indeed not 
 excluded, is confirmed by the purely objective test of the average 
 word-length. The difference in this respect between Huxley's Preface 
 and his Chapter I is considerably greater than that between either 
 of these and the selections from Darwin or Prof. James. The dif- 
 ference between Kipling's "In the Matter of a Private" and his "Man 
 Who Was," in word-length, is greater than that between the former 
 of these and Lamb or Macaulay. A greater difference, moreover, is 
 shown by this objective test between the above-mentioned stories of 
 Kipling, than between the two by Howells, or the two by James, 
 although a period of over twenty years elapsed between the writing 
 of each of these pairs. 
 
 Table I shows no agreement among writings of the same genre, 
 excepting the group of scientists. Novelists and essayists display all 
 varieties of accentuation and rhythm. Ingersoll differs markedly 
 from his fellow orators. The two journalistic styles form a strong con- 
 trast. But although Spencer is extreme in his very low degree of 
 accentuation, he agrees with the other scientists in having a predomi- 
 nance of triple feet. 
 
 Some illustrations will now be given to show the distinctness with 
 which prose rhythm occurs in different rhythmical types. The 
 first is a sentence from "The Little Minister" in perfect duple 
 rhythm : 
 
 "When Gavin came to Thrums, he was as 1 am now, for the 
 pages lay before him on which he was to write." 
 
 The next is a sentence from Macaulay's "Essay on Milton," in 
 which triple rhythm is dominant: 
 
 On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked 
 down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more 
 precious treasure and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles 
 by the right of an earlier creation and priests by the imposition of 
 a mightier hand. 
 
 In the following from Jeremy Taylor there is an alternation of 
 duple and triple : 
 
 It bowed the head and broke its stalk, and at night having lost 
 some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of 
 weeds and outworn faces.
 
 24 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 Finally a passage from the writing of Thompson-Seton is given, 
 arranged as regular blank verse: 
 
 So in this land of long, long winter night, 
 Where nature stints her joys for six hard months, 
 Then owns her debt and pays it all at once, 
 The spring is glorious compensation for the past. 
 Six months' arrears of joy are paid in one 
 Vast lavish outpour. 1 
 
 The Bible is a great treasury of rhythmical English prose. Ex- 
 amples of sentences in perfect triple rhythm, and even regular hex- 
 ameters, may be found almost anywhere in the book. A few such, 
 from a larger collection, are here given: 
 
 How art thou fallen from Heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning. 
 Is. 14: :12. 
 
 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of the 
 trumpet. Ps. 47 : 5. 
 
 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2 : 4. 
 
 We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught 
 in our streets. Luke 18 : 26. 
 
 He looseth the bonds of kings , and girdeth their loins with a 
 girdle. Job 12 : 18. 
 
 Mischief shall come upon mischief and rumor shall be upon 
 rumor. Ps. 18 : 15. 
 
 Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little. 
 Job 10 : 20. 
 
 Be as the sands of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered. 
 Hos. 1 : 10. 
 
 Wall of the daughter of Zion. let tears run down like a river. 
 Lam. 2 : 18. 
 
 A few examples of perfect duple rhythm from the Bible follow : 
 
 He casteth forth his ice like morsels, 
 
 Who can stand before his cold ? 
 He giveth snow like wool. 
 
 Ps. 58. 
 
 The sea and all that in them is, 
 Who keepeth truth forever. 
 
 Ps. 146. 
 
 kfi my yoke upon you and learn of me. Matt. 11 : 29. 
 
 Death is swallowed up in victory; 0, death where is thy sting? 
 0, grave where is thy victory." I Cor. xv. 
 
 lAtliintio Monthly, 90:283.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 25 
 
 Division into lines, which present rhythmical units to the eye, 
 is one of the principal distinguishing marks of poetry. But prose 
 has its rhythmical units also. These are not presented to the eye 
 as are the lines of poetry, but the voice in reading calls attention to 
 them by pauses. These phrasal sections are often, but not always, 
 marked out by the punctuation. 
 
 The part of the sentence before the copula, the subject, usually 
 forms a phrasal section of the kind here meant, alihough it is seldom 
 separated by punctuation. The pause after the statement of the 
 subject can be readily perceived in one's own reading. In the preced- 
 ing sentence, for instance, there seems to the writer a distinct pause 
 before "can." The fact has been verified in a number of examples by 
 having one person read while three others noted the pauses by writ- 
 ing down the words after which they occurred. There is no pause 
 after the subject if the subject is very short, or has been fully sug- 
 gested in the previous sentence. There is no pause after "He" in 
 the following sentence. "He was always laying himself at the feet 
 of some eminent man." The real subject of a proposition some- 
 times does not coincide with the grammatical subject. In such cases 
 the position of the pause indicates the true division. In the follow- 
 ing sentence, for example, it is after "night," not after "It." "It was 
 a dark night between two sunny days." Compare this with the sen- 
 tence that succeeds it in Macaulay's text, "The age of the Macenases 
 had passed away," where the pause divides the sentence into equal 
 halves the subject and the predicate. 
 
 Considering the phrasal section in prose as the analogue of the 
 verse in poetry, the question arises whether the phrases within a given 
 piece of prose, like the verses in a poem, display any uniformity of 
 rhythmical structure. To determine this point, twenty of the texts 
 that had been scanned were read again and divided into phrasal sec- 
 tions. The accents in each phrase were then counted. Here is a 
 passage from Macaulay scanned and divided : 
 
 What silly things he said | what bitter retorts he provoked | how 
 at one place he was troubled with evil presentiments | which came 
 to nothing | how at another place | on waking from a drunken 
 doze | he read the Prayer-book | and took a hair of the dog that had 
 bitten him | how he went to see men hanged | and came away maud- 
 lin how he added five hundred pounds to the fortune of one of his 
 babies | because she was not frightened at Johnson's ugly face | etc. 
 
 Table IX gives in percentages the number of phrases in each 
 selection that contained one, two, or more accents as indicated at 
 the head of each column. Decimals have been omitted.
 
 26 
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 TABLE IX. 
 
 (Accents per phrase.) 
 
 BARBIE 
 
 6 
 
 26 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 % 
 
 % 
 
 KIPLING I. M. P 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 28 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 HOWELLS' L. L. H 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 28 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 DICKENS' 
 
 6 
 
 29 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 RUSKIN M. P 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 29 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 MILTON 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 33 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 BROWNE 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 44 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 JOHNSON 
 
 7 
 
 32 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 DE QUINCEY 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 29 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 CARLYLE 
 
 22 
 
 31 
 
 29 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 MACAULAY 
 
 12 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 23 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 LAMB P. R 
 
 6 
 
 28 
 
 41 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 EMERSON 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 38 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 HOLMES 
 
 6 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 BURKE 
 
 11 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 WEBSTER 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 JNGERSOLL 
 
 21 
 
 36 
 
 26 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Times (Rep.) 
 
 6 ' 
 
 35 
 
 32 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Journal 
 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 W. JAMKS 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 31 
 
 24 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 Averages 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 33 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 A. D 
 
 
 4.7 
 
 4.4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The distributions shown in Table IX are so much alike that we can- 
 not on the strength of them infer distinctive rhythmical types for 
 various selections. . There are, however, a few exceptions. Sir Thomas 
 Browne, Lamb and Emerson have phrases with three accents, much 
 above the average. This must be regarded as indicating another rhyth- 
 mical effect in addition to that discussed in connection with Table I. 
 The figures in Table I were rather disappointing for Browne's style, 
 in view of his great reputation as a writer of rhythmical prose. The 
 figures in Table IX supplement those of Table I and give a more satis- 
 factory explanation of his reputation. Lamb, it is known, modeled 
 his style to a great extent on Browne's. His high percentage in 
 column 3, almost as high as Browne's, seems more than a mere co- 
 incidence. In column 2, we notice Ingersoll's and the Times re- 
 porter's high figures. So far as Ingersoll is concerned, we seem to 
 have a correct register of the short-phrased, staccato style character- 
 istic of him. 
 
 We note next that Table IX appears to show a central tendency as
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 27 
 
 a whole in column 3. The fact is suggestive of Wundt's "Gesetz der 
 drei Stufen." 1 Three accents form a sort of natural unit-group, per- 
 mitting discrimination of "much," "more" and "most." A Ger- 
 man sentence accented and divided by him is of interest. The acute, 
 the grave and the double-acute accents indicate different intensities. 
 
 "Als er sich den Vorwurf | sehr zuHerzen zu nehmen schien | | 
 und immer auf s neue betheuerte | dass er gewiss gern mittheile j gern 
 fiir Freunde thatig sei | | so empfand sie | dass sie sein zartes Gemiith 
 verletzt habe | und sie fiihlte sich als seine Schuldnerin." 
 
 Here are a few English sentences from Lamb to illustrate the 
 phrase of three accents, degrees of accent and pause being ignored: 
 
 "His deportment was of the essence of gravity | his words few or 
 none | and I was not to make a noise in his presence." 
 
 Awful ideas of the Tower | twined themselves about his pres- 
 ence. 
 
 A captive a stately being | let out of the Tower on Saturdays. 
 
 In Wundt's example not only are accents grouped in threes, but 
 also phrases. The single and double bars indicate shorter and 
 longer pauses. There are three long phrases, made up of shorter 
 ones, sometimes three also, in the whole sentence. 
 
 The number of phrases per sentence (phrases distinguished, as 
 before said, by sensible pauses) was counted in the selections named 
 in Table IX. A central tendency appeared in only two or three cases. 
 Emerson had 44 per cent, of two-phrased sentences. Burke had 33 
 per cent, of three-phrased sentences. The frequency of two-phrased 
 sentences in Emerson is probably due to his large proportion of 
 simple sentences. 
 
 The question may be raised whether we have a right to speak of 
 the "rhythm" constituted by phrases that are uniform only in respect 
 to the number of accents contained in them, disregarding unaccented 
 syllables. Some answer to this question was given in the early part 
 of the essay. Another, perhaps more forcible one, is, that poetry 
 meant to be and accepted as rhythmical has been in many languages 
 constructed on exactly this principle. The rhythm of the German 
 Nibelungenliel is composed of main accents, the unaccented syl- 
 lables not being counted. The same principle, besides alliteration 
 and balance, is employed in Old-English poetry. In the earliest 
 Anglo-Saxon manuscripts the lines were written in the same way as 
 in prose, rhythmical divisions being indicated by punctuation. Later, 
 the lines were written as in modern poetry, and half-lines were marked 
 by punctuation; or the half -lines were written one below the other 
 
 i Voelkerpsychologie, Theil 1, Bd. 2, S. 391.
 
 28 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 as lines. The following from Piers Plowman is an illustration, each 
 line as printed being a so-called "half-line": 
 
 There preached a pardoner 
 
 As he a priest were 
 Brought forth a bull 
 
 With many bishop's seals. 
 
 In habite as an heremite 
 
 Unholy of workes 
 Went wyde in this world 
 
 Wondres to here. 
 
 Each half-line corresponds closely to what has been called above 
 a phrasal section. Each contains two "heavy" words. 1 The "heavy" 
 words of the first half-line are distinguished by an alliterative con- 
 sonant, which re-appears in the "heavy" word of the second half-line. 
 The number of unaccented syllables is disregarded. When many, 
 they are hurried over. We have here a rhythm of main concepts fol- 
 lowing in approximately equal times. The times are conditioned 
 but not strictly determined by the intervening unaccented syllables. 
 
 Most scholars now hold that the ancient Hebrew poets considered 
 only the syllables receiving the accent. The subject has been studied 
 with great care by Sievers, Konig and others. Konig points out that 
 the popular poetry heard at the ^ present day in Palestine is also of 
 this character: 
 
 "Lines with two, three, four and five accented syllables may be 
 distinguished, between which one to three and even four unaccented 
 syllables may be inserted, the poet being bound by no definite num- 
 ber in his poem. Occasionally two accented syllables are joined. 
 . . . . The symmetry and variation being determined by emo- 
 tion and sentiment." 1 
 
 The metrical theory which Coleridge meant to exemplify in 
 "Christabel," was practically the same as that here described. But 
 Coleridge held that, although the number of unaccented syllables 
 might vary, the number of accents must remain the same in every 
 line. Something of the same sort may be seen in Milton's "Samson 
 Agonistes," and Whitman ranges from the strict limits of modern 
 conventional verse to a freedom that is less rhythmical than good 
 prose. 
 
 When one considers the comparatively artificial means forced upon 
 poetry for rhythmical purposes, it appears as if rhythm in prose 
 must be a purely accidental effect. A little study will convince us 
 
 1 Skeat, Introd. to Piers Plowman. Clarendon Press, 
 i Koenig Stylistik, Rhetoric, Poetik, p. 305, 1900.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 29 
 
 that prose is not so naive and helpless as we might suppose. It has at 
 command a variety of means for creating rhythm. 
 
 There are in the first place short and long words. Table II gave 
 the average word-length in each selection along with the average 
 foot-length. The fact of correlation between the two is apparent. 
 On applying the Pearson formula for the coefficient of correlation we 
 get r .76 which is high. 1 This means that to a large extent short 
 "feet" go together with short words, and long "feet" with long words. 
 
 The correlation, as the coefficient shows, is not perfect. Barrie's 
 prose has the fewest syllables per word in the table, next to the blank 
 verse of "The Princess." But his average foot, though short, is not 
 the shortest. Ruskin's "Modern Painters" comes next in word-length, 
 but is shortest in foot-length. Spencer has both the longest foot- 
 length and word-length. Howells' L. L. H., Webster, and Huxley's 
 Preface, on the other hand, which have the same average foot- 
 length, show considerable variety of word-length. 
 
 Choice of words is partly dependent on the nature of the sub- 
 ject, but to a large extent it is an outcome of the writer's personality. 
 It may be wholly a matter ot individual taste whether in a certain 
 context one shall write, "man," "human being," "gentleman." "im- 
 mortal soul," "old boy," "chap," or "fellow." He may know all these 
 words, but his selection will be dependent on his feelings, his mood 
 and his training. 
 
 Flaubert's maxim, that for every position in a sentence there is 
 but one right word, is a proposition, like the dogma of predestination 
 in general, that cannot be proved or disproved. It is true that hav- 
 ing once begun a phrase in a particular way a writer is bound to con- 
 tinue in the same form of construction, and having written one kind 
 of word another of a certain kind is expected to follow. But within 
 these limits his liberty is great. The actually written word holds 
 the field by right of possession, and rarely does a reader take the 
 trouble to re-think the thought in different language. It is the 
 writer's privilege to express the thought as it is in his own rather than 
 in the reader's mind. The reader may sometimes say that he him- 
 self would not have written so, but he cannot say that the writer has 
 not written what he intended. 
 
 Something of the individual liberty of the writer is well illus- 
 trated in the following couple of sentences from Thackeray's "Vanity 
 Fair": 
 
 "Love was Miss Amelia Sedley's last tutoress, and it was amazing 
 what progress our young lady made under that popular teacher. In 
 
 i Thorndike, Mental and Social Measurements, p. 123, 1904.
 
 30 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 the course of fifteen or eighteen months' daily attention to this emi- 
 nent finishing governess, what a deal of secrets Amelia learned." 
 
 There are, no doubt, subtle differences of meaning between "Miss 
 Amelia Sedley," "our young lady" and plain "Amelia"; between 
 "tutoress," "popular teacher" and "eminent finishing governess." 
 But who will say that mere sound did not play an important part in 
 determining the selection of these synonyms? "It sounds better," is 
 a principle of rhetoric often invoked by school-children. Perhaps 
 their reason is more nearly right than their reproving teachers 
 usually admit. Madame de Stael is said to have taken great pleasure 
 in listening to meaningless verses. "That is what I call poetry," she 
 would say; "it is delicious and so much the more that it does not 
 convey a single idea to me." 
 
 Prof. James refers to the uncritical way in which meaningless com- 
 binations of words in prose are often read. 1 The illusion of a mean- 
 ing, he thinks, is due to the correctness of the grammatical structure 
 and to the fact that the words belong to the same special vocabulary, 
 in the same language. A conventional rhythm seems also to con- 
 tribute to the effect. In the example he quotes from a newspaper 
 reporter: "The birds filled the tree-tops with their morning song, 
 making the air moist, cool and pleasant," it seems that the reporter 
 was bound to have an evenly divided sentence with a rise and a sus- 
 pension of the voice in the middle. Had he put a full stop after 
 "song," omitted "making" and supplied a copula for his second sen- 
 tence, he would have written sense, but his tune would have been 
 gone. The presence of the tune induces the reader to overlook such 
 a minor slip as that of bird-songs making the air moist. The three 
 adjectives at the close of the sentence are additional evidence that 
 the writer was being led by a preconceived rhythm. 
 
 Arrangement of words is another means of controlling rhythm 
 in prose. The order of words in a sentence is in large measure fixed 
 by the conventionalities of syntax. It is more rigidly prescribed 
 in analytical languages like English and French than in inflectional 
 languages like Greek and Latin. In the former, the order of the 
 words is depended upon to show the grammatical relations, an office 
 that in the latter is performed by word-endings. Transpositions in 
 the inflectional languages produce changes of emphasis without con- 
 fusing grammatical relations. "Eomulus Romam condidit" may be 
 said in six different ways with every possible transposition of the 
 words. The meaning in each case is clear; the emphasis different. 
 In English the subject of the verb must as a rule precede it in order 
 to be known as the subject. 
 
 i Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, p. 268.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 31 
 
 This fixedness of the order of words in English may, however, 
 easily be exaggerated. There is no lack of clearness in this sentence 
 of Carlyle's, "Him Heaven had kneaded of much more potent stuff," 
 nor would there be in a different transposition like, "Of much more 
 potent stuff had Heaven kneaded him." Anthony Trollope writes, 
 "Her it was his custom to visit early in the afternoon" ; . which might 
 also be written, "To visit her early in the afternoon was his cus- 
 tom," or "His custom was to visit her early in the afternoon." 
 
 The general principle underlying the order in which words occur 
 in a sentence is, that the portion of thought most vivid in the speak- 
 er's or writer's mind tends to get itself uttered first. The order of 
 words in expression, moreover, tends to conform to the order of per- 
 ception. "Since it often happens that some striking detail arrests 
 the attention first, while the more important event only shows later, 
 or an obvious effect is more apparent than its hidden cause, so the 
 same order is more effective in language discourse." 1 The instant 
 of conception and utterance is the important moment in expression. 
 Individuality is stamped upon the thought at this moment, and one 
 of the marks of this individuality is the order in which the Avords 
 are produced. 
 
 The importance of the order of words has been recognized by 
 both ancient and modern rhetoricians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus 
 claimed that the choice of words was not of as much importance as 
 their arrangement. The ancients taught that the order of words 
 should be determined by the more or less harmonious collocation of 
 the letters at the end and beginning of words that follow each other, 
 by the rhythmic movement of successive long and short syllables, and 
 by effects of euphony of which the ear alone is competent to judge. 2 
 
 The nature of the transition from thought to thought has an 
 influence in helping or hindering the rhythm of prose. The reader 
 requires sequence of time in narration, some definite order of space 
 relationship in description, the relation of cause and effect, of sub- 
 ordination and coordination or of unfolding and explanation of con- 
 cepts. The presence of such clearly perceived ties produces smooth- 
 ness and easily moving style. Their absence results in incoherency. 
 Ellipses, digressions, collateral ideas check the flow of thought. 
 Rhythm becomes impossible. 
 
 Not only in the choice and arrangement of his words and in his 
 method of joining thought with thought has the writer of prose in- 
 dividual liberty, but he may modify the very form and substance of 
 his thought to suit his purpose. It is often a matter of no conse- 
 
 1 Lotze, Mikr. Bk. IV, eh. 3. (trans, by Hamilton and Jones, 1886.) 
 
 2 Weil, "Order of Words," p. 11.
 
 32 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 quence to him what the particular character of a proposition in a 
 given place in his discourse shall be. What he is interested in is the 
 further thought to which it leads. It may make no difference to him 
 whether he say, "A full moon shone in the heavens," or "It was a 
 bright moonlight night," or "The earth was suffused with a kind 
 of weak daylight." The point he wishes to make is that a certain 
 thing could be seen. So he attain his end, it does not much matter 
 whether the statement that gets him there be active or passive, literal 
 or figurative, or whether he use one figure rather than another. 
 
 In his use of figures he is not, however, free from all limitations, 
 as is often rashly assumed. He must obey certain natural associations. 
 Material images more or less luminous arise spontaneously in the 
 mind with every thought and furnish its vestment. 1 There is no 
 creation of metaphors in good writing; there is but a limited selec- 
 tion. 
 
 The true metaphor, which is a naming by one term of two con- 
 cepts, arises in the mind at the moment of utterance because of a 
 resemblance between the two concepts in some essential particular 
 and an actual blending of the two. 2 When the poet says, "fear 
 chalked her face," or " I stole from court cat-footed through the 
 town," there has been no deliberate putting together of distinct 
 images. The two ideas came together originally and have not been 
 separated. 
 
 Artificial figures affect the sensitive reader as evidence of insin- 
 cerity. Their use for the sake of rhythm only adds to the impression 
 that there is an attempt at imposition. A writer on nature subjects 
 has the sentence, "All the eastern sky is glowing amber; westward 
 riding high, the moon stares from the empyrean of cold azure washed 
 with silver, a disc of polished brass." We feel pretty sure the writer 
 of that did not see all the images in the relations in which he puts 
 them in his sentence. If he insist that he did, we must conclude that 
 his mind works in ways that are exceptional and abnormal. The 
 particular figure to be used cannot be prescribed or predicted from 
 the outside. There is a large field for individual variation, but the 
 associated images must be recognized as occurring together in some 
 considerable number of human minds. There is no hesitation gener- 
 ally in naming metaphors like "hair shot through with sunset spikes 
 of gold," and lips "with musical curves," false and strained. 
 
 i Emerson, Nature, Chapter II. 
 
 * Buck, "Metaphor, a Study in the Psychology of Rhetoric," 1800.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 33 
 
 The rhythms that have occupied our attention thus far have been 
 phonetic. Accentual rhythm is indeed the external form of thought 
 rhythm, the significant in thought coinciding with the phonetically 
 accentuated. But there are thought rhythms not so closely con- 
 nected with sound rhythm. Rhythms of this sort may be called 
 logical. The rhythmical units are thoughts repeated in form or sub- 
 stance, or changing in a regular way. It will be convenient to intro- 
 duce this part of our subject by reference to a language other than 
 English in which the principles of logical rhythm have been to some 
 extent recognized and formulated. 
 
 Biblical scholars have termed the logical rhythm of the Bible 
 "parallelism of members." This is a rhythm over and above that 
 accentual rhythm of the Bible already referred to. The Hebrew text 
 of the Bible is elaborately punctuated to indicate syntactical and 
 logical groupings of words. 1 The characters used for punctuating 
 are called accents, but are rather of the nature of musical notes to 
 guide the public reader. Different degrees of coherence and of separa- 
 tion are indicated by different characters. This system of punctua- 
 tion was first instituted in the poetical books but was applied later 
 to the prose books also. 
 
 The principle of parallelism predominates in the poetical books. 
 The parallelism may be of several kinds. The first and second mem- 
 bers may state the same thought in different words ; the second mem- 
 ber may state a thought antithetical to the first; the second member 
 may echo or supplement the first. The parallelism may also subsist 
 among three members. In such case all three may be coordinate 
 expressions of the same thought, or the last two may supplement 
 the first, or the first two may be coordinate and supplemented by 
 the third. The main divisions in all these cases are indicated by the 
 principal accent or punctuation mark. 
 
 Examples of these parallelisms are: 
 
 Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger | j 
 Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 
 
 A soft answer turneth away wrath 
 But a grievous word bringeth up anger. 
 
 Life he asked of thee; thou has given it him : | ] 
 Length of days forever and ever. 
 
 They have hands but they handle not | 
 Feet have they but they walk not 1 1 
 Neither speak they through their throat. 
 
 i Wickes, Accents of the Prose Books of the Bible, 1881. 
 " " Poetical " " " 1887.
 
 34 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 Each member of each group is further subdivided and punctuated 
 to show its syntactical and logical structure. These points of the 
 second order are placed approximately at the phonetic middle of 
 each clause, tending to produce evenly balanced groups of sounds, 
 and in some cases where adherence to the logical grouping of the 
 words would result in an unsymmetrical division, the accent is shifted 
 to a more agreeable position. 
 
 In this subdivision of the clauses, phrasal sections are marked 
 out corresponding to the phrasal sections we have already noted in 
 English. The principles of division are similar. When the subject 
 precedes, it is generally marked off from the rest of the sentence : 
 
 "And the earth | was waste and void." 
 
 When the object precedes, which implies that it is to be especially 
 emphasized, it is marked off: 
 
 "A laughing stock | has God made me." 
 
 Adverbial and prepositional phrases at the beginning of a sentence 
 are set off: 
 
 "As for the man | he found no helpmate." 
 
 Turning now to English^ we find that balance of clauses and 
 phrases, as it is called, differs from the parallelism of the Bible only 
 in the fact that the principles underlying coordination and subordina- 
 tion of the members in the modern language are of greater subtlety. 
 The relation of part to part is of a more intellectual character; the 
 connecting links are more finely discriminated. 
 
 In the "Euphuism" of the sixteenth century, which marks the 
 beginning of the formation of an English prose style 1 parallelism 
 and balance ran riot. Besides alliteration, consonance, rhyme and 
 plays upon words, we find a profusion of twin phrases and parallel 
 clauses, and the most elaborate antithesis of well-balanced sentences. 
 The artificiality of the euphuistic style is what most impresses a 
 modern reader. But the same devices as those employed there may 
 be found more or less in all artistic prose. 
 
 We may take for example the first paragraph of Macaulay's Es- 
 say on BoswelPs "Life of Johnson." 1 
 
 "The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great a very great work. 
 Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare 
 is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not 
 more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biog- 
 
 i Garnett, "English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria," p. 4, 1801.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 35 
 
 raphers. He has no second. He has distanced all his competitors 
 so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them. Eclipse is 
 first, and the rest nowhere." 
 
 The first sentence contains repetition in the predicate. The 
 rhythm of thought in the second sentence, consisting of clauses 
 of the same form but of different, though analogous, meaning, is 
 obvious. The fourth sentence would in Biblical style be expressed 
 without the correlatives "so that." These words in the English 
 sentence disguise but do not destroy the parallelism. The fifth sen- 
 tence is distinctty balanced. 
 
 It may be thought that Macaulay is exceptionally fond of these 
 effects. But open a book by a very different sort of writer, at ran- 
 dom. Let it be Stevenson's "Amateur Emigrant." The chapter 
 happens to be "Steerage Types." The first sentence of the first para- 
 graph contains repetition of the same part of speech. The second 
 sentence is, "Even in these rags and tatters, the man twinkled all 
 over with impudence like a sham piece of jewelry | and I have heard 
 him offer a situation to one of his fellow passengers with the air 
 of a lord." Here the second member states specifically what the 
 first has expressed in general terms. This corresponds to the form 
 of Biblical parallelism named "synonymous," 
 
 "0 Jehovah, my God, thou art very great, 
 Thou art clothed with honor and majesty." 
 
 The third sentence is, "Nothing could overlie such a fellow; [ a 
 kind of base success was written on his brow." This is of the 
 same kind as the preceding. The fourth sentence: "He was then in 
 his ill days ; ) but I can imagine him in Congress with his mouth full 
 of bombast and sawder," is antithetical. The next two sentences 
 are respectively synonymous and antithetical : "As we moved in the 
 same circle, | I was brought necessarily into his society." "I do 
 not think I ever heard him say anything that was true, kind or 
 interesting, | but there was entertainment in the man's demeanor." 
 The last sentence of the paragraph is simple and the only one that 
 does not contain balance or parallelism. 
 
 If it be objected that between the members of the parallel clauses 
 that have been cited as examples, a variety of logical relationships 
 may be discriminated, and is, in fact, indicated by the connecting 
 particles, it should be observed that such logical relations exist be- 
 tween the members of the Biblical parallel groups also, although the 
 connecting particles are absent. The explicit statement of the logical 
 relation between consecutive clauses is even in modern English largely 
 a matter of taste with the writer. The essential thing is that the
 
 36 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 relation be there. But connectives indicating condition, cause, con- 
 sequence, etc., are not wholly lacking in Biblical parallelism. Con- 
 dition, for instance, is expressed in, 
 
 "Except Jehovah keep the city, 
 The watchman waketh but in vain." 
 Causal relation is expressed in, 
 
 "I have not turned aside from thy judgments, 
 For thou has taught me." 
 ID 
 
 Thou are my hiding place and my shield 
 
 I hope in thy word." 
 
 The causal relation is just as clearly given without a connective. 
 
 Repetitions of the same form of phrase with different but allied 
 meaning constitute another order of thought rhythm. A celebrated 
 passage of Burke's will illustrate this: 
 
 "Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank 
 and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that sub- 
 ordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, 
 the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap 
 defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiments and heroic enter- 
 prise is gone. It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity 
 of honour which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage 
 while it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, 
 and under which vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its gross- 
 ness." 
 
 The same type of word or word-group recurring verb, noun, ad- 
 jective, or noun with adjective gives another rhythmic effect. The 
 last sentence of Ingerspll's lecture on "Domestic Happiness" may be 
 quoted as an example : 
 
 "I would rather have lived and died unnoticed and unknown, ex- 
 cept by those who loved me, and gone down into the voiceless silence 
 of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation 
 of force and murder who covered Europe with blood and tears." 
 
 Orations are more artificial than other forms of prose. But 
 we find the same kind of rhythm in the quietest sort of writing. 
 Scott, for instance, has: 
 
 "The sun was setting upon one of the rich, glassy glades of that 
 forest which we have mentioned in the beginning of the chapter. 
 Hundreds of broad-headed, short-stemmed, wide-branched oaks," 
 etc. "in some places they were intermingled with beeches, hollies 
 and copsewood of various descriptions so closely as totally to inter- 
 cept the level beams of the sinking sun." 
 
 And in the still more placid writing of Howells' "London Films" 
 we have:
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 37 
 
 "It was having apparently the time of its life, and really the place 
 was enchanting with its dose-cropped, daisy-starred lawns, and the 
 gay figures of polo players coming home from a distant field in the 
 pale dusk of a 'brilliant day of early June." 
 
 The rhythm of parallelism may be further seen in proverbs and 
 catch-phrases, which are intended to strike the attention and be re- 
 membered. "Man proposes, God disposes." "Words are the counters 
 of the wise and the money of the fools." "Charity creates much of the 
 misery it relieves, but does not relieve all the misery it creates." 
 "The greatest happiness of the greatest number." "High life, below 
 stairs." In all these illustrations, it is evident, phonetic rhythm 
 accompanies thought rhythm at every step. 
 
 An attempt has been made to show a characteristic rhythm ol 
 judgments for different writers by counting the number of predi- 
 cations in each sentence and finding the average per sentence in a 
 large number of periods. 1 The average of predications per sentence 
 in 500 periods of any author who has "achieved a style," according 
 to Gerwig, is approximately the average of his whole book. He gives 
 a record of his count for 100 representative authors. The figures 
 showing a pretty uniform average of predications per sentence in 
 Macaulay during a long period of years, are here reproduced: 
 
 Number Av. Pred. Per cent. 
 
 of per of 
 
 Date. Periods. Period. Simp. sent. 
 
 ROYAL Soc. OF LIT 
 
 1823 
 
 100 
 
 2.03 
 
 44 
 
 PANTB 
 
 1824 
 
 100 
 
 2.15 
 
 38 
 
 MILTON 
 
 1825 
 
 895 
 
 2.07 
 
 38 
 
 MACHIAVELLI 
 
 1827 
 
 693 
 
 1.88 
 
 47 
 
 ESSAY ON HISTORY 
 
 1828 
 
 719 
 
 2.18 
 
 40 
 
 DBYDBN 
 
 1828 
 
 ioa 
 
 2.65 
 
 29 
 
 P'AHBLAY 
 
 1843 
 
 918 
 
 2.31 
 
 32 
 
 ADDISON 
 
 1843 
 
 1331 
 
 2.22 
 
 32 
 
 ATTERBUHY 
 
 1853 
 
 240 
 
 2.35 
 
 34 
 
 BDNYAN 
 
 1854 
 
 245 
 
 2.19 
 
 31 
 
 GOLDSMITH 
 
 1856 
 
 263 
 
 2.29 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 
 2.17 
 
 36 
 
 Since these figures represent only explicit predications, they do 
 not really give us a census of judgments in these works, for there 
 are various ways of expressing a judgment while avoiding explicit 
 predication. A judgment may be uttered in the one word "Rain !" 
 and according to the intonation it may mean, "The rain is falling," 
 
 * Gerwig, "On the Decrease of Predication, etc." U. of N. Studies, 
 vol. II, No. 1., 1894.
 
 38 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 "The rain will soon fall," "I fear it may rain," etc. 1 Explicit predi- 
 cation may be avoided by the use of absolute constructions "Caesar 
 having reached the Rubicon"; by appositives "Caesar, a Roman, 
 general"; by conjunctions without copulas "Caesar was a Roman 
 and the conqueror of Gaul"; by prepositions instead of conjunctions, 
 copulas or conjunctions with copulas "Caesar was a Roman with 
 few equals in military genius"; by phrases for clauses, by suggestive 
 words for phrases, by present and past participles. A uniform 
 average of predications in successive sections of a prose work, there- 
 fore, must be considered as indicating a rhythm composed of judg- 
 ments, indeed, but not a rhythm formed of all the judgments. 
 
 Sherman has found that every writer has a characteristic sen- 
 tence rhythm throughout his works. 2 Historically the English sen- 
 tence has been diminishing in length from the pre-Elizabethan age 
 to the present time. Fabyan, the earliest writer studied, has an 
 average sentence length of 63.02 words; Spenser's average is 49.82; 
 Hooker's, 41.40; Macaulay's, 22.45; Channing's, 25.73; Emerson's, 
 20.58. 
 
 The constancy of the average sentence length in successive sec- 
 tions of a given writer's prose may be seen in the following tables 
 taken from Sherman's "Analytics of Literature." 
 
 DE QUINCEY. Average Sentence Length in Words. 
 
 1st 100 
 
 29,74 
 
 12th 100 
 
 34.42 
 
 2d " 
 
 38.62 
 
 13th " 
 
 29.57 
 
 3d " 
 
 29.82 
 
 14th " 
 
 38.58 
 
 4th " 
 
 31.22 
 
 15th " 
 
 35.32 
 
 5th " 
 
 34.21 
 
 16th ' 
 
 40.29 
 
 6th " 
 
 29.09 
 
 17th " 
 
 39.29 
 
 .7th " 
 
 30.39 
 
 18th " 
 
 38.12 
 
 8th " 
 
 32.93 
 
 19th " 
 
 31.24 
 
 9th " 
 
 33.92 
 
 20th " 
 
 30.76 
 
 10th " 
 
 32.88 
 
 21st " 
 
 33.57 
 
 llth " 
 
 34.09 
 
 22d " 
 
 32.09 
 
 The average of all the periods is 33.25 ; the mode is about 33. 
 The averages for each thousand consecutive sentences of Macau- 
 lay's "History of England," are as follows: 
 
 1 Ladd, Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory, p. 460, 1894. 
 
 2 Sherman. Analytics of Literature, 1893.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 39 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Average Sentence Length. 
 
 26.09 
 
 23.00 
 
 22.21 
 
 20.54 
 
 24.21 
 
 25.33 
 
 25.06 
 
 25.01 
 
 24.20 
 
 21.76 
 
 22.33 
 
 24.97 
 
 23.51 
 
 21.59 
 
 24.81 
 
 22.92 
 
 24.99 
 
 24.10 
 
 24.05 
 
 23.71 
 
 22.13 
 
 19.62 
 
 21.81 
 
 23.26 
 
 22.36 
 
 21.11 
 
 23.39 
 
 22.81 
 
 20.85 
 
 25.58 
 
 22.39 
 
 23.91 
 
 21.08 
 
 25.86 
 
 23.17 
 
 24.92 
 
 23.81 
 
 23.81 
 
 24.03 
 
 25.28 
 
 23.33 23.18 23.32 23.73 
 
 The variability of the length of the sentence, within each series, 
 however, is great, in modern authors. Macaulay's long sentences are 
 very long. Three consecutive paragraphs taken at random from New- 
 man's "Historical Sketches," show the following sentence lengths: 
 
 26 41 34 36 19 21 19 18 
 
 28 - 9 _ 61 40 30 31 37 
 45 _ 32 _ 92 
 
 The last four sentences of the first paragraph are so nearly equal 
 in length that they form a rhythmical group. The last sentence 
 seems abnormally long. But such great variability as we see here 
 is more apparent than real, for the position of the full stop is 
 arbitrarily determined. Another writer would be just as likely to 
 make three sentences of that long one, punctuating with periods where 
 Newman uses the colon, semi-colon, and comma with dash. There 
 is good reason, in fact, for considering the paragraph rather than 
 the sentence the true unit of discourse, since the only positive rule 
 for pointing off sentences is to choose the longer breaks in the sense. 1 
 Statements that would be independent sentences if standing alone are 
 often united into one sentence when they are parts of a paragraph. 
 A writer sees the topics of his discourse as hazy paragraphs, which 
 he proceeds to analyze and define in sentences. 
 
 There is in some authors a marked tendency toward uniformity 
 in length of paragraphs. Macaulay was found by Lewis to have the 
 greatest amount of paragraph rhythm. His "History of England" 
 gave the following averages per volume: 258.11, 251.52, 325.44, 336.- 
 60, 306.90. Authors of regular methods show a general tendency 
 toward approximate uniformity in the paragraph averages of different 
 sections of their works. 
 
 iBain, "English Composition," 157, 1886.
 
 40 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 The foregoing studies of prose rhythm point to the conclusion 
 that style and rhythm in prose are to a very large extent identical. 
 Rhythm in prose plays the same part that voice, gesture and facial 
 expression play in oral speech. And just as we practically never 
 have expressionless speech, so we never have rhythmless or styleless 
 prose. 
 
 Writers on Rhetoric differ in their use of the term "style." Spen- 
 cer, Lewis, and Hodgson, for example, mean by the word simply "the 
 mode of handling language for a purpose, whatever the purpose may 
 be and whatever the occasion." 1 Prof. Genung, on the other hand, 
 speaks of styleless writing and quotes a passage conveying statistical 
 information in illustration. 2 "I have stated the taxable value of all 
 the property of Texas," it runs, "at six hundred and three millions. 
 Let me enumerate, in round numbers, a few of the items which go 
 to make up that sum. The land is counted at about two hundred 
 and forty-seven millions," etc., etc. It is a dry statement of fact. 
 Nevertheless, it may safely be asserted that few men having the 
 same information to impart would give it in just the same way. 
 
 The passage quoted by Prof. Genung was called styleless by him, 
 probably because there is in it a very low degree of emotional excite- 
 ment. But the writer of the passage evidently takes a stand per- 
 sonally toward his subject when he says "I have stated" and "Let 
 me enumerate." There was no fatal necessity for him to put his 
 sentences in the active rather than the passive voice, or vice versa, 
 or with one end foremost rather than the other, or to use the par- 
 ticular words he uses, or to connect or fail to connect his sentences 
 as he does. Writing that is more than mere cataloguing cannot help 
 having style, though the style may be conventional. 
 
 If it be maintained that a manner of writing not sufficiently 
 peculiar to serve to characterize the writer from all other men- does 
 not deserve to be called "style," we may reply that of most men the 
 most striking peculiarity is conventionality. Their gait, their ges- 
 ture, their intonation, and their rhythm are, to the eyes of all but 
 a few friends, conventional. 
 
 Style is elevated above conventionality and made individual main- 
 ly by the pressure of emotion in the writer, and the natural result 
 of strong emotion is rhythmical expression. Heightened emotional 
 pressure causes repetition of words. 3 The machinery of expression 
 becomes inadequate to carry off the excess of matter suddenly crowded 
 upon it. There is temporary damming up of the channels, with 
 
 J Hodgson, Outcast Essays and Verse, p. 220, 1881. 
 
 2 Genung, Practical Rhetoric, p. 13, 1899. 
 
 3 Hoeffding, Vierteljahrscbrift f. Wies. Phil., 1890. XIV, S. 185.
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 41 
 
 consequent strong out-break, followed by a lull and a repetition of 
 the damming up process. 1 The phenomenon may be likened to the 
 bubbling of water from a narrow-necked bottle. As a result we get 
 expressions that are only excited stuttering like "No, no, no, no!" 
 rhetorical explosions like the classical, "Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit," 
 Chatham's "I am astonished, I am shocked to hear such principles 
 confessed, to hear them avowed in this house and in this country," 
 and the more complex rhythms of poetry and prose. 
 
 The effect of rhythm in language is to lock the parts together into 
 a unity and thus to facilitate comprehension. It economizes atten- 
 tion, for it assists the reader in putting emphasis where it is due. 
 It is often found that writers who are difficult .to read become easy 
 after they have been heard in oral discourse. Their peculiar mode 
 of vocal accentuation is imperfectly suggested in their writing, but 
 the voice once having been heard, its remembered rhythm thereafter 
 guides the reader. The experience here referred to is especially com- 
 mon with writing in foreign languages. 
 
 The need of having the "swing" of a sentence in order to under- 
 stand it may be illustrated by an example. Ask someone to read 
 the following sentence aloud without previous examination: "Now, 
 any fact, whether of arithmetic, or geography, or grammar, which is 
 not led up to and into out of something which has previously occu- 
 pied a significant position in the child's life for its own sake, is 
 forced into this position." 2 The half dozen particles, "up, to, and, 
 into, out, of," coming together usually cause a halt or a stumble. 
 But as .soon as it becomes clear that the accents are on "up," "in," 
 and "out," there is no difficulty in reading and understanding the 
 sentence. 
 
 Spencer has suggested that the excellence of a style might be 
 measured by the rate of a reader's comprehension. The rate of com- 
 prehension, again, it would seem, should be shown by the speed with 
 which a piece of writing is read aloud. A few tests of this kind were 
 made by the writer, as follows : 
 
 "Sesame and Lilies," "Red Rover," the "Essay on Boswell," "Mod- 
 ern Painters," and "The Old Pacific Capital," have different rhythms 
 as indicated in Tables I and II. "Red Rover" is least rhythmical, 
 "Old Pacific Capital," most. "Sesame and Lilies" is less rhythmical 
 than "Modern Painters." The predominant rhythm of "Old Pacific 
 
 i Spencer, First Principles, Chapter: Rhythm of Motion. 
 2Dewey: The Child and the Curriculum; Oontrib. to Ed. v. Chicago, 
 p. 32. 1902.
 
 42 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 Capital" is duple; in "Red Rover" and "Essay on Boswell" it is 
 triple. "Modern Painters" is more duple than "Sesame and Lilies'* 
 and has less long feet. 
 
 About 500 words of each of these selections were read aloud by 
 (J) at a rate of speed which he was told to make as nearly as possible 
 normal; that is, natural or easy. He was timed with a stop-watch. 
 The figures in the table are calculated for exactly 500 words. 
 
 
 
 
 J. (Reading aloud.) 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 & L. . . 
 
 2 min., 
 
 57.1 
 
 HC 
 
 R. 
 
 R. ... 
 
 2 " 
 
 46.4 
 
 
 E. 
 
 o. B 
 
 2 " 
 
 31.8 
 
 H 
 
 M. 
 
 P 
 
 2 " 
 
 36.4 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 P. C. . . 
 
 2 " 
 
 28 
 
 ., 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The same selections were read by (F), and as there seemed to be 
 a tendency to read the later selections faster, the last two were 
 changed about. 
 
 F. (Reading aloud.) 
 
 S. & L 3 min., 1.2 sec. 
 
 R. R 2 " 47 
 
 B. o. B 2 " 36.6 
 
 O. P. C 2 " 32.9 " 
 
 M. P 2 " 36.4 
 
 After reading them all (F.) read S. & L., again, in 
 
 2 min., 43.7 sec. 
 
 It appears from these tests that "Sesame and Lilies" with its long 
 feet and irregular movement was read more slowly than "Modern 
 Painters" with its great amount of duple rhythm. Stevenson's 
 style, so often referred to as "light," appears literally to go quickly. 
 
 The three Kipling stories were tested in the same way. These 
 differ according to Tables I and II, "In the Matter of a Private " con- 
 taining the greatest amount of duple rhythm, "The Man Who Was." 
 the least. The readers were (A. L.), (B.) and (L.). 
 
 I 11 P 
 
 A. L. 
 
 151.09 8C. 
 
 B. 
 
 154.05 MC. 
 
 L. 
 169.96 tec. 
 
 I. K. M 
 
 152.83 " 
 
 156.85 " 
 
 165.91 " 
 
 M. W. W 
 
 100.60 " 
 
 160.60 " 
 
 170.50 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 "The Man Who Was" was read slowest by all three. "In the 
 Matter of a Private" was read quickest by two. The results from
 
 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 43 
 
 this test agree, on the whole, with those from the reading of ( J.) and 
 (F.) in indicating that duple rhythm moves faster than other 
 rhythms, and that much rhythm conduces to speed in reading. 
 
 Strongly marked rhythm, as it is an outcome of emotion, also 
 stirs up feeling in the reader or listener. Just as a loud cry sug- 
 gests the emotional state of the one who utters it, so marked rhythm 
 in language implying that speech is going on under high emotional 
 pressure, immediately excites an interest in the emotion-arousing 
 thought. The rhythmically expressed thought gets a hearing, for 
 those to whom it is addressed share in anticipation the excitement of 
 the thinker. 
 
 Ehythmless writing is even more difficult to find than styleless 
 writing, for thought is by its nature rhythmical and so must its ex- 
 pression be. "Like a bird's life it seems to be made of an alterna- 
 tion of flights and perchings. The rhythm of language expresses 
 this, where every thought is expressed in a sentence and every 
 sentence closed by a period." x Children just beginning to write 
 articulately, necessarily fall into such a simple sentence rhythm. 
 "Dear Uncle ," writes a six-year-old, "It made me happy to re- 
 ceive your letter. This afternoon I was going to pick some violets 
 for you but it rained. I have a surprise to tell you when you come. 
 Father was down west last week. He was away a long time. Can 
 you come soon. I have another surprise for you for supper. It made 
 me smile too when mother read your letter." The rhythm here is, 
 indeed, fragmentary, rudimentary and disturbed as compared with 
 that displayed by a mature writer. 
 
 As an illustration of weak rhythm the following sentence by 
 Addison may be taken : "In the next place we may observe that where 
 the words are not monosyllables, we often make them so, as much as 
 lies in our power, by our rapidity of pronunciation." The words 
 that have to be accented in this sentence are mainly poor in content 
 they add little to what is already in the mind. In the clause, "we 
 often make them so as much as lies in our power," the only words 
 unmistakably requiring an accent are "make" and "power;" the rest 
 is rhythmically structureless. It is, of course, possible with a little 
 distortion of the natural mode of reading to accent other words, but 
 the effect is disagreeable, for the mind abhors a vacuum. Unrhyth- 
 mical writing is loose and undecided. Ehythmical writing implies 
 a consciousness of one's purpose and a mastery of one's meanings. 
 This brings us to another condition of rhythmical writing, the 
 
 i James, Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, p. 243.
 
 44 RHYTHM IN PROSE. 
 
 possession by the writer of a complex thought as a whole. There 
 can be only the crudest and most elementary sort of rhythm in the 
 writing of one whose thought comes in driblets. A complex thought 
 grasped as a unit is, in fact, another aspect of that which was re- 
 ferred to above as pressure of emotion. The pent-up energy that 
 issues in repetitions, parallelisms, balance, etc., also produces phonetic 
 rhythm, for there is an impatience in that state of mind of insignifi- 
 cant words. Accents then follow one another unerringly and there is 
 no vacillation or ambiguity.