, tii 
 
 ' h 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
 AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 
 
 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 SALES AGENTS 
 
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 LEMCKE & BUECHNER 
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 HUMPHREY MILFORD 
 AMEN CORNER, E.G.
 
 VOICE-PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 The syllable "tab," photographed Aug. 14, 1915. The higher summits 
 of the time-line are approximately one sixtieth of a second apart. The 
 negative has been slightly reinforced by the engraver. 
 
 
 A A A A A 
 
 < * * 
 
 "Ah" film at slow speed photographed July 25, 1915. 
 of roughness in the tone is recorded near the center. 
 
 A moment 
 
 " Top! Top!", from the test for sense of rhythmic " swing." Part of the 
 record of Observer No. 4. (See Chapter III.)
 
 THE 
 
 RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF 
 
 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE IN 
 
 THE SENSE OF RHYTHM 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM MORRISON PATTERSON, PH.D. 
 
 INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 J13eto gork 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 1917 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 Copyright, 1916 
 BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 Printed from type, December, 1916
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 BF 
 
 TO 
 
 D. M. P. 
 M. R. L. P. 
 
 AND 
 
 C. B. A. 
 
 1343296
 
 This Monograph has been approved by the Depart- 
 ment of English and Comparative Literature in Columbia 
 University as a contribution to knowledge worthy of 
 publication. 
 
 A. H. THORNDIKE, 
 
 Executive Officer.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 WHAT is prose and what is verse? Aristotle and Diony- 
 sius of Halicarnassus, Cicero and Quintilian, Professor 
 Saintsbury and Professor Sievers, have all tried to tell us. 
 No one yet, however, seems to be quite sure. Free verse 
 and "poetic prose" are the disturbing ghosts which inter- 
 pose their ambiguous outlines in the way of a decision. 
 But, apart from this, is it any wonder that the student 
 who dips, or, more boldly, dives into the inevitable chapter 
 on rhythm to be found in current musical hand-books, 
 rhetorics, treatises about versification, etc., emerges mys- 
 tified, when so little account is taken of individual differ- 
 ence in what is one of the most "individually different" 
 of human experiences? Rhythm is tangled up with our 
 sense of time and our sense of intensity, both of which are 
 not only tricky, but multifarious. Nothing is more pre- 
 posterous, therefore, than that an author, the organization 
 of whose temporal impressions is confessedly vague, should 
 undertake to present to humanity at large a comprehensive 
 and final statement of the art of versification. His own 
 particular code might easily be read with interest as a 
 document, but could hardly be expected to serve as a 
 universal guide. On the other hand, it would be equally 
 misleading for the experiences of an aggressively rhythmic 
 individual, with a relatively accurate sense of temporal 
 values, strong motor reactions, and subtle powers of dis- 
 crimination in pitch and stress, to be set forth as if they were 
 thoroughly usual. The psychologists have long since recog- 
 nized that rhythm is the result of a complex process, whose 
 operation can never be reduced to any one short formula. 
 
 fa
 
 X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 Inasmuch as the writer felt convinced that a clear solu- 
 tion of the problem of prose rhythm would depend upon 
 experimental data, obtained under carefully regulated 
 conditions, the main text of the present book was not 
 composed until after a series of experiments, described in 
 Appendices I, II, and III, had been performed upon a 
 group of twelve subjects, most of whom were trained ob- 
 servers, connected with the Department of Psychology at 
 Columbia. Preliminary experiments upon an entirely 
 different set of observers had already been completed 
 during the summer of 1915. The regular tests were given 
 in the sound-room of the Department of Psychology, and 
 in a fairly sound-proof cabinet, specially constructed under 
 the supervision of Professor Pegram of the Department of 
 Physics. In this cabinet was installed apparatus for photo- 
 graphing the vibrations of the human voice. The object 
 of the investigation was to determine individual difference 
 in rhythmic experience and performance, with the particular 
 hope of ascertaining facts that would lead toward a better 
 understanding of the nature of prose rhythm. 
 
 Out of the facts, more or less accurately established, 
 there has appeared the needed explanation. Past theoreti- 
 cal tangles are now seen to be due chiefly to a failure to 
 take sufficiently into account individual difference in the 
 complex of actual rhythmic experience; and a foundation 
 is laid, based on experimental data, upon which, it is 
 hoped, duly flexible systems, either of versification or of 
 prose rhythm, can safely be erected. Most of the funda- 
 mental principles have already been authenticated by 
 previous investigators. Rhythm is thus regarded as first 
 of all an experience, established, as a rule, by motor 
 performance, of however rudimentary a nature. 1 Only 
 
 1 Ruckmich, C. A., The role of kinoesthesis in the perception of rhythm, 
 Amer. J. of Pay. , XXIV, 1913.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xi 
 
 in a transferred sense (as potential) can rhythm be said 
 to exist on the printed page of a text. 
 
 Of the six chapters in the present book, Chapter II, 
 "Historical Survey," is primarily intended for psycholo- 
 gists; but the account of Squire's "Genetic Study of 
 Rhythm," and the brief reviews of Meumann, Wallin, 
 MacDougall, Wundt, Verrier, Sievers, Schipper, and 
 Thomson should not be omitted by the literary student. 
 Chapter III, "The Sense of Swing," is chiefly of interest to 
 psychologists and to musicians. Chapter IV, "Rhythmic 
 Tunes," is indispensable to a real understanding of the 
 subject, as it contains a detailed description of a "timer's" 
 experience with regard to a sentence by Walter Pater. 
 The musician should read Chapters I and III, the larger 
 part of Chapter IV, and the first nineteen conclusions 
 listed in Chapter VI. It is necessary to urge every reader, 
 however, to obtain as clear as possible an understanding 
 of "unitary pulses," "elastic units," "syncopation," "spon- 
 taneous substitution," and "rhythmic tunes." These 
 terms are explained and discussed in various parts of the 
 book, as shown by the references in the Index. The 
 appendices contain a condensed description of the actual 
 experiments, and brief comments upon their significance. 
 The "Introductory Outline," which precedes Chapter I, 
 gives a short review of the whole situation. 
 
 The present experiments were facilitated by the kindness 
 of Professors Cattell and Woodworth of the Department 
 of Psychology at Columbia, and especially by the material 
 assistance of Professor Pegram of the Department of 
 Physics, without whom the apparatus for voice-photography 
 could never have been constructed. Obligations are due to 
 Professor Woodworth, Professor Hollingworth, Dr. Poffen- 
 berger, Mr. E. B. Kinney of New York, and others who 
 compose the group of observers that were tested. The 
 author is especially indebted to Professor Krapp of the
 
 xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 English Department, under whose general supervision the 
 work was undertaken, and whose sympathetic interest in 
 the whole investigation is deeply valued. He is likewise 
 indebted to Professor Lawrence and Professor Fletcher for 
 reading the manuscript, and for help in other ways. Valu- 
 able suggestions were received from Professor Thorndike, 
 Professor Todd of the Department of Romance Languages, 
 and Professor Boas of the Department of Anthropology at 
 Columbia; also, from Professor Baird of Clark University, 
 and Professor Sabine of Harvard. 
 
 W. MORRISON PATTERSON 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 
 
 May 1, 1916 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 
 
 Miss AMY LOWELL'S generous readiness to deliver, in the 
 author's photographing laboratory, readings of what she 
 considers typical vers libre, has resulted in objective meas- 
 urements which indicate interesting progressive changes in 
 the temporal intervals from one chief accent to another, 
 but nothing, as yet, which indicates a difference, in kind 
 between the "cadences" of this vers libre and those of emo- 
 tional prose. Does there exist, then, a difference in degree? 
 These recent experiments have been of too brief a nature to 
 warrant any final conclusions; but the author, after hearing 
 Miss Lowell's effective delivery of her own compositions, 
 might state his view of the question at issue as follows: 
 
 The segregation of the phrases in VERS LIBRE, produced 
 by printing them on separate lines, serves chiefly as a means of 
 keeping the focus of attention upon the RHYTHM AS RHYTHM, 
 affecting thus both silent reading and oral delivery. This 
 "rhythm" held before our attention is not so much the 
 fundamental rhythmic experience, felt as prose or verse, 
 but rather the secondary or broader rhythmic grouping, in
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xiii 
 
 which phrases, long and short, are balanced against each 
 other, according to that native instinct by means of which 
 we complacently make two and two equal five, so far as 
 interest is concerned. To the hunter the fleeing fox weighs 
 as much as the cows blocking his way. When once the 
 game of literary balancing is introduced, the separate spac- 
 ing of the phrases in free verse reminds us, gently but inevi- 
 tably: -"This is a phrase! This is a phrase!" In spite of 
 this fact, have we attained to anything that lifts us neces- 
 sarily out of prose experience? What is achieved, as a rule, 
 in Miss Lowell's case, is emotional prose, emphatically 
 phrased, excellent and moving. "Spaced prose," we may 
 call it. With other writers the result is often merely 
 unrhymed verse, with irregular length of line; or, as is 
 frequently apparent in the writings of Edgar Lee Masters, 
 a mosaic of bits of verse and bits of prose experience. 
 
 Miss Lowell delivers her vers libre with much more swing 
 and vim than one commonly hears in prose; but surely all 
 particularly vigorous prose, if it is to be valued as a fit 
 medium for vigorous thought and feeling, must also be thus 
 delivered. Colonel Roosevelt, in fact, delivers his own 
 prose with just as much " stress" and with just as much 
 "curve" to use Miss Lowell's defining terms in her ac- 
 count of vers libre as Miss Lowell contributes to her 
 "free verse." Where, then, is the preferential difference as 
 to form? If there is any difference in degree of stress, the 
 intensity is undoubtedly more pronounced in the delivery 
 of Colonel Roosevelt. When we hear him repeat the follow- 
 ing sentence from his History as Literature: 
 
 "The squat, slit-eyed, brawny horse-bowmen drew a red 
 furrow across Hungary"; 
 
 or, out of his African Game Trails, this: 
 
 "The dim, yellow smear in the yellow-brown grass was a 
 lion,"
 
 xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 
 
 the effect is fittingly big. To space in separate lines 
 the phrases in these sentences would, indeed, draw a 
 "red furrow" of self-consciousness around the rhythm as 
 rhythm; but would not this very process reduce to a corre- 
 spondingly "dim smear" Colonel Roosevelt's splendid 
 spontaneity? 
 
 W. M. P. 
 March 31, 1917.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE 
 
 The Indian's keen sense of rhythm. A lost art. Aggress- Page 
 ively rhythmic timers. Their ability to organize subjec- 
 tively any haphazard series. Prose as a more or less 
 haphazard series of sounds. Who is aggressive? The 
 importance of an accurate sense of tune. The sense of 
 "swing." Facility and pleasure in automatic syncopation. 
 
 The ability to evoke a series of subjective time-measuring 
 pulses. The limitations of a typical "stresser." Unitary 
 pulses as an explanatory factor in music and folk-dancing. 
 Ease, spontaneity, and fitness, as standards of excellence in 
 comparing rhythmic experiences. Clear-cut rhythmic ex- 
 perience impossible without a subjective scale of time. 
 Such a scale to be found in elastic unitary pulses. The 
 subjective organization of all experience according to this 
 theory xxi 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NEW STANDAKD 
 
 The interest of the problem. Wundt's suggestion. The 
 present experiments described. The spontaneous creation 
 of a rhythmic tune as a factor in the subjective organization 
 of irregular sequences. Motor response. Meumann and 
 Wundt. Their failure to recognize the importance of 
 "elastic" units, spontaneous substitution, and syncopation. 
 
 Syncopation explained. Complicated syncopating tasks 
 accomplished by observers with very little musical training. 
 
 The secret of such accomplishment. Primitive rhythmic 
 sense. The principle of "occult balance." Spontaneous 
 substitution explained. Sievers. His neglect of syncopa- 
 tion. Individual difference. Observer No. 7 contrasted 
 with Observer No. 10. The codrdination theory illustrated. 
 
 xv
 
 xvi CONTENTS 
 
 The walking-step. Its unduly regulating influence. Page 
 The endless possibilities of accelerating and retarding units, 
 substitution, and syncopation. Wundt's suggestion experi- 
 mentally established with certain limitations. The experi- 
 ence of aggressive timers the basis of a new standard for 
 discussing the rhythm of prose. Stress-patterns subordi- 
 nate to the time-patterns which they help to mark. Motor 
 response the test of rhythm in prose. Prose rhythm a 
 consistent, more or less clear-cut, "unified" experience for 
 an aggressive timer 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 
 Brucke's experiments vitiated. Bolton's comprehensive study. 
 
 Meumann's signal contribution. Binet and Courtier's 
 musical studies. Sievers. His objection to experimental 
 phonetics obviated by recourse to sound photography. His 
 theories on speech-melody unsubstantiated by convincing 
 data. Flat contradiction between his fundamental empha- 
 sis upon the time-element in connection with rhythm and the 
 application of his two-beat theory for old English verse. 
 Wallin's interesting experiments with Tennyson and Brown- 
 ing. MacDougalTs subordination of stress in rhythmic 
 experience. Stetson's motor theory of rhythm, involving 
 the activity of two opposing sets of muscles. Bingham's 
 motor theory for melody. Scripture. Inaccuracy con- 
 nected with phonograph records. The rhythm of work. 
 Bucher and Miss Smith. Squire's genetic study of rhythm. 
 
 The validity of unitary pulses. Time the basis of 
 rhythm. Marbe and Lipsky. Their method superficial. 
 
 Brown. Rhythm primarily temporal. Wundt. Sen- 
 sations in the joints and muscles as the primary origin of 
 time-images. All life upon a basis of vibration. Possi- 
 bility of considering all irregular movements as rhythmic 
 fragments. Benussi's three factors in time-perception. 
 Vender's belief in a natural rhythm or "vocal step" for each 
 person. Landry's discussion of "weight." Saran's criti- 
 cism of Sievers for confusing rhythm and accent. Artistic 
 prose regarded by Saran as chiefly "rhythmless." Schipper 
 and Sievers involved in contradiction between their defini-
 
 CONTENTS XVH 
 
 tions of rhythm and their application of Sievers's five Page 
 "types" in connection with Old English verse. Saints- 
 bury's self-confessed defeat. Ruckmich's valuable con- 
 tribution. Weld's study of musical enjoyment. Sea- 
 shore. Thomson's criticism of Lanier. Unitary pulses. 
 Neglect of individual difference in the sense of rhythm the 
 cause of past confusion 17 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 
 
 Elasticity explained as acceleration followed by compensative 
 retarding, or vice versa. Progressive motion. No one 
 sense of rhythm. Novelty of an objective test for the sense 
 of swing or the power to gauge progressive movement. 
 Time-intervals considered in terms of velocity. Illustration 
 with a stick and a steam-radiator. Description of the 
 laboratory test for swing. Various mental processes in- 
 volved. Graphs of the performance of certain individuals. 
 The sense of swing as an element in aggressively rhythmic 
 endowment. Tempo rubato 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 
 
 Illustration with a sentence from Walter Pater. Typical 
 schedules of the corresponding rhythmic tunes. Observer 
 No. 7's experience with haphazard series of drum-taps. 
 Detailed description of a rhythmic experience in connection 
 with the passage from Pater. Unitary pulses marked by 
 a series of what appear to be muscular tensions. Breath 
 phenomena. Suggestions received from the text. From 
 stress-patterns. The line of least resistance. Automatic 
 syncopation. Occurrence of pulses seldom coincident with 
 accented syllables. The drum-beat tune merely one ele- 
 ment in a larger fusion. Spontaneous substitution again 
 explained. The coordination theory illustrated by a regular 
 series of sounds concomitant with an irregular series. Il- 
 lustration from the music of Cyril Scott. Ratan Devi. 
 Schumann's "Traumerei." 62
 
 xviii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 VEBS LIBRE 
 
 Distinction between prose and verse. Typical prose-intervals Page 
 more or less irregular, but susceptible of subjective organiza- 
 tion by an aggressively rhythmic timer. Influence of 
 stress-patterns. Predominantly syncopating relations be- 
 tween the unitary pulses and accented syllables in the text 
 the condition of prose experience. Predominantly coinci- 
 dent relations the condition of verse experience. Synco- 
 pation and coincidence the only relations possible. No 
 tertium quid, therefore, between verse and prose except 
 confusion (when coordination ceases) or a bald mosaic . . 74 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Prose rhythm not an elusive experience for the aggressively 
 rhythmic person. Mistaken ideas about prose rhythm. 
 Discriminative time-sense necessary for the valuation of 
 movement. Body-rhythm and body-balance distinguished. 
 Timers and stressers. Sievers and Schipper both incon- 
 sistent. Hidden symmetry. The rhythm of thought 
 according to the coordination theory. Possibilities of 
 speed-change increased in the rate of the measuring pulses. 
 General results of the investigation. A new definition of 
 rhythmic experience for each individual. A rough descrip- 
 tion of the experience of a timer. Wundt's statement ex- 
 perimentally established within certain limits. No series 
 of impressions that cannot be conceived as rhythmic. 
 Ease, spontaneity, and fitness as literary standards of 
 rhythmic excellence. Predominance of syncopation the 
 criterion of prose experience. Predominance of coincidence 
 the criterion of verse experience. Syncopation and sub- 
 stitution explained. Accent. "Aggressively rhythmic" 
 explained. Observers classified. Importance of rhythmic 
 tunes in subjective organization of haphazard material. 
 Mistaken ideas about the "development" of prose rhythm. 
 "Possibility scanning." No scientific basis for the applica- 
 tion of speech-melody to textual criticism. Application of
 
 CONTENTS xix 
 
 the standards of ease, spontaneity, and fitness. Caprice, Page 
 economy, and artistic adjustment as motives. Application 
 to rhetoric. To literary criticism. Importance of motor 
 response as a test. The ease with which rhythmic sense 
 may be developed. Practice in syncopation the secret . . 81 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS 
 
 Two laboratories. Construction of apparatus for securing 
 photographs of sound. New arrangement of lights. 
 Setting of mercury contacts for objective test of ability to 
 gauge progressive movement . 103 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 
 Table of contents. Thirty-four steps 107 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
 
 Introductory note. List of observers. Pulse and breath. 
 Types of mental imagery. Ability to keep time (unit- 
 accuracy). Test for sense of swing. Walking-rate. 
 Test for pitch memory. Other memory tests. Records 
 obtained by sound-photography. Syncopation tests. 
 Tests with haphazard series of drum-beats. Unitary music. 
 Unitary pulses. Factors in organizing drum-beat series 129 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 179 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 
 
 INDEX . 189
 
 INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE 
 
 THE music of contemporary savages, such as that of 
 the Kwakiutl, investigated by Professor Boas, 1 taunts us 
 with a lost art of rhythm. Modern sophistication has 
 inhibited many native instincts, and the mere fact that 
 our conventional dignity usually forbids us to sway our 
 bodies or to tap our feet when we hear effective music, 
 has deprived us of unsuspected pleasures. Certain it is 
 that the facility of the American Indian in the execution 
 of syncopating rhythms is matched in most of us by a 
 thoroughly blunted process, characterized by hesitation 
 and awkwardness. Any attempt, accordingly, to regain an 
 instinctive grasp over rhythmic problems, such as we may 
 readily believe was possessed by our primitive ancestors, 
 is quite hopeless, until we revert to the testimony of naive 
 experience, and the progressive results of actual motor 
 performance. 
 
 The significant fact to be gleaned from the experimental 
 data listed in Appendix III is that the most comprehensive 
 form of rhythmic experience occurs with individuals like 
 Observer No. 7, a professional musician, whose mental and 
 physical reactions may be described as "aggressively" 
 rhythmic. 2 Such persons are capable of feeling a con- 
 sistent and continuous experience of organized rhythm 
 when confronted with haphazard series of sounds of any 
 nature (within the limits of "time-discrimination thresh- 
 olds" and "attention spans"). The impressions of 
 accented and unaccented "syllables" in freely uttered 
 
 1 Boas, F., The Kwakiutl Indians, U. S. Nat. Mus. Rep. for 1895. 
 8 Of course, no two individuals ever react exactly alike. The 
 term "type" is in many ways a highly misleading fiction. 
 
 xxi
 
 xxii INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE 
 
 prose usually suggest haphazard arrangement. To the 
 aggressively rhythmic person a passage of spoken prose, 
 whose measured intervals (between accents) display the 
 utmost objective irregularity, can be organized subjectively 
 and give pleasure according to the varying facility of the 
 process and the varying emotional suggestiveness attending 
 it. To those who are deficient in rhythmic aggressiveness, 
 such a haphazard series frequently produces vague "im- 
 pressions" of elusive rhythm, but never the consistent, 
 more or less complete experience possible to the opposite 
 class. 
 
 Who, then, is "aggressive"? The man who exactly 
 remembers definite words he has uttered or precise move- 
 ments he has executed in his dreams; who can not only 
 hear the puffs of a locomotive, when they happen to be 
 objectively even, group themselves subjectively into a tune 
 of two's or four's, but who can also change this tune at 
 will; who can keep strict time when he chooses, but whose 
 confident sense of "swing" allows him also to gauge and 
 enjoy progressive acceleration and retarding; who finds 
 syncopation 3 pleasant and easy; and, finally, who can 
 summon without effort, like the Indian, an inner series 
 of time-beats, "elastic" 4 because capable of accelerating 
 or retarding, and "unitary" because not necessarily grouped 
 in a succession of two's or three's. With these "elastic 
 unitary pulses" any haphazard series, by means of syn- 
 copation, can be readily, because instinctively, coordinated. 
 The result is that a "rhythmic tune," compounded of time 
 and stress and pitch relations, is created, the chief char- 
 
 * By syncopation is meant the correlation of at least two sets 
 of time-intervals, concomitant but not coincident as when a negro 
 dancer taps with his feet just half-way between the hand-claps of 
 those who are accompanying his performance. More complicated 
 forms occur when an Indian sings a melody in three-tune, against 
 a tom-tom accompaniment in four-time, etc. 
 
 4 For a discussion of "elasticity" see beginning of Chapter III.
 
 INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE xxiii 
 
 acteristic of which is likely to be complicated syncopation. 
 An arabesque of accentual differences, group-forming in 
 their nature, is superimposed upon the fundamental time- 
 divisions. 
 
 To the person who cannot easily evoke a subjective 
 series of time-measuring pulses, such as appear objectively 
 in the American Indian's "pulsation of the voice on sus- 
 tained notes, " 6 rhythmic experience must continue to be 
 chiefly concerned with alternation of stress, and the 
 patterns of "metre" familiar in routine scanning. In 
 place of the relatively clear-cut temporal experiences of the 
 aggressively rhythmic mind, wherein stress has an indis- 
 pensable yet not overestimated function, he substitutes a 
 reaction, capable of vigor, but innocent of subtlety; for 
 the discrimination and measurement of intensity is ac- 
 knowledged by physicists, physiologists and psychologists, 
 as the chief snag in objective valuations. Our perception 
 of time is blurred enough, but our perception of exact 
 degrees of stress is hopelessly inaccurate. It turns out, 
 therefore, that the "stresser," even in his own department 
 of interest, is likely to rank below the aggressive "timer" 
 with regard to precision. 
 
 In considering unitary pulses it may prove of assistance 
 to examine our experience in listening to Schumann's 
 "Traumerei," while attempting to beat time to it regard- 
 less of the printed notation. We need not be astonished 
 to find that from the first to the second chief accent in 
 the melody five quarter-note pulses occur. This group of 
 five beats is followed by phrases which may be felt either 
 as groupings of six, five, five, etc., or as groupings of four, 
 four, three, five, etc. Here is a piece of music, the uni- 
 versally popular appeal of which is unquestioned, that 
 shifts its successive grouping rapidly. The unifying 
 temporal element is the series of subjective quarter-note 
 1 Curtis, N., The Indian's book, N. Y., 1907, p. xxvii.
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE 
 
 beats or unitary pulses, regardless of the size of the clusters 
 into which they are grouped, since these are significant 
 only in the broader effects of phrasing. This principle 
 furnishes a key to many previously unanswered problems. 
 On no other basis, for instance, can the sudden shifts of 
 measure in folk-dancing be explained. Such shifts are 
 known among all races. They are "an unmistakable 
 characteristic," says Steenstrup, 6 "of the music of olden 
 times, especially of folk-music." As a modern example, he 
 cites the dancing of the peasants of Oberpfalz, which 
 changes rapidly, back and forth, between three-time and 
 four-time. Whatever varied effects of stress-grouping may 
 be superimposed, the primary binding element, unfailingly 
 potential in the aggressively rhythmic consciousness, is a 
 series of more or less elastic unitary pulses. But, of course, 
 our conventional notation continues to cloud all such 
 issues. 
 
 Prose rhythm must always be classed as subjective 
 organization of irregular, virtually haphazard, arrange- 
 ments of sound. 7 The experience, when judged by a 
 standard of excellence, implies a requisite of fitness between 
 thought and movement, in addition to ease and spontane- 
 ity. This appropriateness does not figure in the subjective 
 organization of a haphazard series of drum-beats or of 
 purely musical sounds. The ultimate basis of all rhythmic 
 experience, however, is the same. To be clear-cut, it must 
 rest upon a series of definite temporal units. When once 
 we have established ease in the institution of unitary 
 pulses, whose progressive accelerating and retarding we can 
 
 6 Steenstrup, J. C. H. R., The medieval popular ballad, trans, by 
 Cox, E. G., N. Y., 1914, p. 165. 
 
 T For a "timer" the definition of prose as distinguished from 
 verse experience depends upon a predominance of syncopation over 
 coincidence in the coordination of the accented syllables of the text 
 with the measuring pulses.
 
 INTRODUCTORY OUTLINE xxv 
 
 gauge, it becomes possible, by means of instinctive syncopa- 
 tion and freely operating substitution, 8 to coordinate 
 rhythmically with our sense of time all the movements of 
 our every-day existence. The dance of death is quite 
 balanced by the possibilities of a dance of life. 
 
 8 The division of a pulse-interval into several equivalent shorter 
 intervals, or the combination of several unit intervals into an equiva- 
 lent longer interval. According to this latter function unitary pulses 
 may appear in clusters even in recurrent clusters. What remains 
 characteristic of them is that the progression from any one pulse to 
 the next is felt by certain observers to be part of a fundamental 
 rhythmic experience underneath the grouping, whatever this happens 
 to be. Where this feeling does not exist, unitary pulses, with a 
 pleasurable motor reaction of their own, cannot be said to occur.
 
 THE RHYTHM OF PEOSE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 
 
 MOST of us respond with a thrill of pleasure to the 
 "occult balance" of a swiftly moving sail-boat, tilted, 
 between strain of wind and weight of ballast, at some 
 rakish angle. Unfortunately for science, OUT attention 
 wanes and our perceptions blur as soon as we attempt to 
 analyze either the pleasure or the "balance." For the 
 layman, the promise of new forms of pleasure is the only 
 successful lure to assisting at such an investigation. 
 
 The tilt of rhythmic experience in connection with prose 
 is likely to be more than rakish; there are times when to 
 some the boat seems quite on the awkward edge of up- 
 setting, and even when the going is at its best, the forces 
 that make for balance are so obscure that the average 
 mind resents any effort to single them out. It is only on 
 the chances of hitting upon some new savor of excitement 
 that even the literary man will consent to prowl within 
 the neighborhood of a psychological laboratory. To learn 
 from Wundt 1 that "no series of impressions is possible 
 that cannot in some way be comprehended as rhythmic" 
 is a matter of small concern until we suddenly discover 
 that by listening for rhythm in irregular sequences, in the 
 criss-cross lapping of many waves upon the shore, in the 
 syncopating cries of a flock of birds, in the accelerating 
 
 1 Wundt, W., Grundzuge d. physiolog. Psychologic, Leipzig, 1911, 
 III, p. 53. 
 
 1
 
 2 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 and retarding quivers of a wind-blown tree, we have found 
 a new form of pleasure that embraces in its field every 
 moment of our conscious life. 
 
 The first object of the present experiments 2 was to find 
 out, as far as possible, how a group of twelve people, ten 
 men and two women, differed with respect to the complex 
 of mental processes usually designated roughly as the 
 "sense of rhythm." After they had been ranked according 
 to the nature of their reactions and achievements in various 
 tests, one of the group, Observer No. 1, who had evinced 
 a measure of ease in rapid tapping, was chosen to make 
 drum-beat records on a phonograph. A sentence from 
 Walter Pater, a sentence from Henry James, a passage 
 of music from Chopin, a haphazard arrangement of words, 
 and a haphazard arrangement of musical notes, were 
 tapped upon a small metal drum, and the beats recorded 
 by the phonograph. The words were tapped according 
 to the syllables as felt, a tap for each syllable. "Hours," 
 for instance, was given two beats. The notes were tapped, 
 as far as possible, according to their designated tune- 
 values. Observer No. 1, having had long training as a 
 musician, found no technical difficulty in the task. The 
 remaining eleven observers, without being told the source 
 of the records, heard the five series of drum-beats, and 
 passed judgment upon them. The most significant judg- 
 ment made was that of Observer No. 7, who declared that 
 all five records gave him the impression of regular musical 
 themes. A large number of the observers, especially on 
 the first hearing, found all of the records, including even 
 the passage from Chopin, elusive and more or less irregular. 
 An attempt was then made, by means of accompanying 
 schedules, to find out how much or how little organization 
 each observer could be brought to feel in the beats cor- 
 
 2 For a detailed account of the experiments, see Appendices I, 
 II, and III.
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 3 
 
 responding to the passage from Walter Pater, and the 
 passage of haphazard musical notes. 
 
 The indications are that for many observers the great 
 secret in subjectively organizing what objectively appear 
 to be irregular sequences, lies in the spontaneous or sug- 
 gested creation of a "rhythmic tune." An attempt to 
 hum what is heard or the hearing of humming by others 
 helps to initiate motor response; and motor response, 
 whether it be nodding the head, or moving the eyes, the 
 tongue, or the throat, or beating time with the hands or 
 feet, or anything else, tends to fall into the form of a 
 series, accompanying the humming at points where the 
 possibility of regular intervals is suggested. It is a com- 
 monly accepted fact that all repeated movement tends 
 thus to become regular. 3 
 
 Here is where we strike large gaps in the results of pre- 
 vious investigations (see Chapter II, "Historical Survey"). 
 For some strange reason, even Meumann and Wundt fail 
 to keep before their eyes three important factors, familiar 
 to every musician: first, the possibility of accelerating or 
 retarding a series of regular motions without destroying 
 the impression of rhythm; second, the possibility of 
 substituting at any time (i.e., spontaneously) one long 
 time-interval for several equivalent short ones, or vice 
 versa; third, the possibility of preserving a certain series 
 of time-intervals, but of changing in various ways the 
 nature of the motions or sensations that mark the beats. 
 This last is what we mean by syncopation. To be sure, 
 all three factors are mentioned, especially the first and 
 second; but statements are constantly made in which 
 their influence is neglected. As for syncopation, it is 
 usually completely forgotten. 
 
 1 Scripture, E. W., Elements of experimental phonetics, N. Y., 
 1902, p. 525; see also Miyaki, I., Researches on rhythmic action, 
 Yale Psy. St., X, 1902, p. 4. .
 
 4 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 Syncopation, in itself, involves a complex of mental 
 processes. The most essential part of the phenomenon 
 seems to be that we keep our impression of a series of 
 subjective time-intervals, regular, accelerating or retarding, 
 but find a pleasure in marking the beats objectively, 
 either by different forms of motion, such as foot-taps 
 alternating with hand-taps, or by what appears at first as 
 an omission of objective marking for certain beats. As a 
 matter of fact, this is usually nothing but the interpolation 
 of some concealed form of motor reaction, such as an eye, 
 throat, tongue, or breath movement, which alternates with 
 a more visible movement, such as nodding or tapping or 
 dancing. OUT ability to syncopate thus depends largely 
 on our ability to coordinate. It is also possible for the 
 impressions usually associated with syncopation to occur 
 in connection with a train of mental images. In order to 
 maintain a syncopating scheme successfully, it seems to be 
 a universal experience that the accents dividing the series 
 of temporal units into groups should be strongly marked. 
 This would mean that when the last beat of a bar of 
 regular musical notation is tied over to the first beat of 
 the next bar, this second beat, which thus loses its objective 
 discreteness, needs to be very firmly felt on the subjective 
 side, by both performer and listener. The rhythmic con- 
 sciousness in rag-time is "tremendous." 4 
 
 In order for the non-musical person to understand clearly 
 what is meant by syncopation, he should undertake the 
 
 * * 
 
 following experiment: Count 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4- continu- 
 ously to yourself with an accent on every "1" that is, 
 on the beginning of each group of four. After about ten 
 seconds, begin to tap with your finger on a table every 
 time you say "2" and "4." Internally you are still to 
 
 4 Puffer, E. (Mrs. Howes), The psychology of beauty, Boston and 
 New York, 1905, p. 168.
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 5 
 
 accent every "1." This is a simple form of syncopation. 
 
 * * 
 
 Now try a more difficult one. Count 1-2-3-1-2-3-, etc., to 
 yourself with an accent on every "1." After a few seconds, 
 while still counting, tap your finger just as you say "1" 
 and just after you say "2." You will then be making a 
 rough approximation to beating two-time against three- 
 time that is, the time-interval which you are dividing 
 into three parts by suppressed articulation, you are dividing 
 into two parts by your finger-taps. The process involves 
 syncopation because the motions and sensations, or images 
 of motions and sensations by means of which you mark 
 the time, undergo a certain amount of interchange or 
 alternation. If you were to hear another person tapping 
 three's with one hand and two's with the other, it might 
 be possible for you to hear the result in the form of a 
 "rhythmic tune" in which you felt no interchange of 
 motor response or sound sensation, but merely heard a 
 series of taps, differing in intensity but not in land, 
 separated by intervals, whose size depends upon the 
 pattern of the rhythmic tune. The element of substitution 
 mentioned in a previous paragraph is here in operation, 
 but the true syncopating element is absent, or, at any 
 rate, somewhat disguised. 
 
 The importance, however, of hearing first the rhythmic 
 tune of two's against three's, performed correctly by 
 another person, before attempting to tap two's against 
 counted three's (true syncopation) cannot be overestimated. 
 As a result of the experiments described later, 6 the writer 
 has found that it is possible for observers with virtually no 
 training in music to learn very quickly to tap even so 
 complicated a syncopating scheme as five against seven 
 with a fair degree of success, provided they approach the 
 task, not as a mathematical problem involving five and 
 * Appendices II and III, section xxiv in each case.
 
 6 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 seven and their multiple, thirty-five; but by hearing some 
 one else, who has learned to do it, perform the rhythmic 
 tune. Actual measurements on the kymograph show that 
 the pattern of time-intervals, if heard naively, is not 
 difficult to reproduce. By humming the combination as 
 "one, two-and, three, and-four, five-and, six, and-seven," and 
 learning that the "and" in " two-and" is just a little 
 closer to two than it is to three, that the "and" in "and- 
 seven" is just a little closer to seven than to six, and that 
 the "and" in "and-four" and "five-and" is exactly half 
 as far away from its respective number as the "and" in 
 "two-and," the rhythmic tune is ready for application in 
 the form of syncopation. While the observer, having 
 learned the tune with an approximation of correctness, 
 hums the counting scheme, he taps with his finger every 
 time he says "one," and every time he says "and." The 
 result is that by omitting the uttered "and's" and tapping 
 his finger in their place he is beating "five's" against 
 "seven's" in true syncopating fashion without necessarily 
 knowing it! The most astonishing part of the performance 
 is that if the observer reproduces the rhythmic tune 
 correctly, he is using intervals the smallest of which is one 
 thirty-fifth of the distance from "one" to "one," the 
 others ranging from two to five thirty-fifths. This means 
 that, without realizing it, he is counting in thirty-fives. 
 The process soon becomes automatic. 
 
 This would all seem to imply, then, that the mysterious 
 awe with which we regard the rhythmic proficiency of 
 some of our American Indians, for instance, may have to 
 be lessened. Our astonishment should be directed, not so 
 much at their having perpetuated what is, after all, a 
 fairly simple trick, as at our own stupidity in losing the 
 trick, in the use of which, for all we can guess from the 
 ancient records of our East Indian cousins, our primitive 
 drum-beating ancestors could leave the Western Indians
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 7 
 
 far behind. Nevertheless, speaking of the music of the 
 Omahas, Fillmore remarks 6 that in "rich variety and com- 
 plexity of rhythm" it "excels most of our civilized music 
 by a great deal. Our most elaborate compositions for 
 orchestra have no rhythms more difficult or more complex 
 than have these short songs; and our popular music is 
 incomparably simpler in rhythm than is the popular music 
 of the Omahas." 
 
 In this connection it should be note'd that in the regular 
 experiments 7 even the professional musician, Observer 
 No. 7, failed utterly at the task of beating "five's" against 
 "seven's" so long as it was approached from the purely 
 numerical basis; on the other hand, there were very few 
 of the group who failed within twenty minutes to reproduce 
 with a measure of success the seven-five rhythmic tune 
 at a moderate tempo, and to execute the syncopating 
 performance by means of it. The measurements listed are 
 for their achievement at a fairly rapid rate of speed, which 
 reduced the number of successful performances. 
 
 The way in which primitive man could have developed 
 such facility is easy to imagine. Two men happen to be 
 beating their drums at the same time in different quarters. 
 One is tapping two's; the other one, three's. A third 
 man hears the rhythmic tune of the combination, and 
 proceeds to tap it later on his drum. It interests him; 
 so he plays with it in different ways. Knowing that the 
 original sounds came from a combination of two drums, he 
 taps with his stick to represent one drum, and with his 
 foot to represent the other. Once done, the task is easy, and, 
 of course, it might have been suggested in a dozen ways. 
 
 The factor of "substitution" is so often mentioned, and 
 is treated so fully in certain phases, that it seems surprising 
 
 Fillmore, J. C., Primitive rhythms, Congr. Rep. Anthrop., 1893, 
 p. 172. 
 
 7 Appendix III, section xxiv.
 
 8 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 that it should ever be slighted. What seems to be for- 
 gotten chiefly is its function as an essential element in 
 "occult balance" or " substitutional symmetry," as it is 
 called by Puffer. 8 A small spot of red in one corner of a 
 Japanese print balanced against a much larger patch of 
 gray somewhere opposite, a goose flying north weighed 
 against a daisy bending to the south, a low, prolonged 
 murmur heard and weighed against a short, shrill cry 
 these are effects of substitution or compensation. 
 
 The principle is mentioned by Wundt. 9 He seems to be 
 singularly averse, however, to applying it in a thorough- 
 going way to arrangements of time-intervals. It is quite 
 generally accepted that pitch, stress, and duration are 
 constantly being substituted for each other as elements of 
 "accent" (used in the sense of emphasis); but the con- 
 templation of a series of time-intervals, varying in size, as 
 forming occult balances just as if they were spots and 
 spaces, seems foreign to both Wundt and Meumann. At 
 any rate, they both leave disconcerting gaps in their 
 discussion of rhythm, because of their failure to apply a 
 principle to which they are already committed. 
 
 The point at which Wundt and Meumann stop so short 
 can be made clear, perhaps, by the following rough Experi- 
 ment. Tap with one finger upon a table at any convenient 
 rate. Do not vary the intensity of the taps in such a 
 way as to form groups of two's or three's; simply beat a 
 series of "unitary pulses": "1-1-1-1-1, etc." Now begin 
 to substitute for a single tap all sorts of haphazard varia- 
 tions, in each case subdividing the unit time-interval into 
 as many equal short time-intervals as caprice may direct. 
 
 8 Puffer, E., Studies in symmetry, Harv. Psy. St., I, 1903, p. 529: 
 "A picture composed in substitutional symmetry is more rich in its 
 suggestions of motor impulse, and thus more beautiful, than an ex- 
 ample of geometrical symmetry." 
 
 Wundt, op. tit., Ill, p. 156.
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 9 
 
 In this way the "1's" will still be tapped, but between 
 them will occur one, two, three, etc., extra taps. The sum 
 of the short intervals will, of course, in each case equal the 
 regular standard unit. Between every two successive 
 sums (equivalent to two consecutive standard intervals) a 
 judgment can be made as to the fact that although one 
 contains three taps and the other four, for instance, the 
 two are really equivalent. Brevity of interval compensates 
 for excess in number. Nothing could be simpler. When 
 the appointed time has passed, the main pulse returns, 
 and the sense of rhythm, as the results of the experiments 
 on the music of Cyril Scott 10 clearly demonstrate, follows 
 the march of the recurrent pulses. 
 
 This is different from the example given in a preceding 
 paragraph, where a "low, prolonged murmur" is balanced 
 against a "short, shrill cry." Pitch and stress elements in 
 the latter compensate for its brevity. This form of sub- 
 stitution is coming to be generally understood. It is the 
 recurrent, spontaneously varied form described in the 
 preceding paragraph, that has been neglected. Yet once 
 apply it to the problem of prose, and its import is far- 
 reaching. In fact, it may be felt to include syncopation, 
 which, together with the principle of elastic unitary pulses, 
 explains completely the subjective organization of hap- 
 hazard series. 
 
 Sievers n speaks of prose as breaking up into "Sprech- 
 takte" or "speech-bars," with a tendency to equal dura- 
 tion. One can even "beat time to artistic delivery." 
 Elsewhere, 12 too, he speaks of arbitrary changes of tempo, 
 depending on sense and mood. Of the manifold possi- 
 bilities of syncopation, however, he has taken virtually no 
 account; nor has he made any statement that goes beyond 
 
 10 Appendix III, section xxxi. 
 
 11 Sievers, E., Grundzuge d. Phonetik, 5th ed. Leipzig, 1901, p. 266. 
 u Ibid., p. 255.
 
 10 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 Wundt and Meumann in connection with applying the 
 principle of spontaneous substitution to a series of unitary 
 pulses, where rhythm is maintained by a succession of 
 shorter time-intervals than those that lie between the chief 
 accents of a sentence. The truth of the matter is that 
 this shorter pulsing temporal unit can never be felt con- 
 sistently in prose unless we are keenly alive to the subtleties 
 of syncopation. This means that time-beats will have to 
 fall predominatingly upon unaccented syllables or within 
 the pauses between words; otherwise, either the prose will 
 be unduly "regulated" by an attempt to beat time, or else 
 the sense of a recurrent unit will be destroyed. 
 
 At this point individual difference proves to be of the 
 greatest significance. With those who possess or can 
 acquire the ability to correlate speech intervals with an 
 elastic under-unit, syncopating freely, and capable of 
 breaking up spontaneously into "substitutional" clusters, 
 the process either appears from the start as automatic or 
 soon becomes so. Moreover, it is as easy and natural for 
 a syncopating " timer" like Observer No. 7, as it is difficult, 
 if not impossible, for No. 10, whose rhythmic limitations 
 have been ascertained in the tests. In the first place, she 
 is deficient in auditory types of imagery, 13 she has difficulty 
 in learning anything by ear, and fails to remember accu- 
 rately fairly simple groups of vowel sounds. 14 More 
 significant still, her rank is quite low for all the tests in 
 syncopation, simple and complex, 15 and she finds little 
 interest in the process. Observer No. 7, on the other 
 hand, enjoys it thoroughly and scores high in his per- 
 formance of the tasks. 
 
 Granted that one has facility and interest in syncopation, 
 the application to prose of an elastic (accelerating and 
 retarding) time-unit is a simple matter, and can be made 
 
 " Appendix III, section iv. " Appendix III, section xiii. 
 
 15 Appendix III, sections xxii, xxiv.
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 11 
 
 clear by the following rough experiment: Read any prose 
 sentence aloud several times, until what appears to be a 
 natural, easy swing for it is established. Then begin 
 walking up and down at a comfortable rate, capable of 
 being accelerated or retarded moderately, that is, without 
 reaching the extreme of being actually doubled or halved. 
 Now begin to read the sentence aloud again, while 
 walking, taking care, at first, to keep the two operations, 
 reading and walking, as separate as possible. If anything, 
 exaggerate irregularities in the reading. Then gradually 
 allow the sets of movements to merge into a combined 
 impression; in other words, catch the "rhythmic tune" of 
 the footsteps beating against the articulatory impulses 
 with a definite interest in every bit of syncopation detected 
 that is, in every spot where a footstep falls between two 
 syllables instead of coinciding with either one of them. 
 
 Having marked the most striking cases of syncopation, 
 begin to allow the reading of the sentence to affect the 
 rate of walking, rather than the reverse; i.e., accelerate 
 or retard to a moderate degree the walking-step wherever 
 the sense or the sound of the sentence may suggest. Con- 
 tinue reading and walking, but begin to concentrate more 
 and more upon the rhythmic tune, with its syncopating 
 possibilities, which will seldom fail to emerge into just such 
 forms as are indicated by the schedules employed in the 
 phonograph experiments. 16 
 
 In the actual laboratory tests the above correlation of 
 reading and walking-step was often obtained in a much 
 shorter time than it has taken to describe the process. It 
 must be remembered, however, that the walking-step (as 
 actually performed not imaged) is about the most 
 inelastic unit one could select, and is, consequently, very 
 likely to exert too much of a regulating influence on the 
 reading. The experiment is valuable because of its ease, 
 16 Appendices II and III, section xxix.
 
 12 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 and is simplified by the fact that the walking-step is more 
 likely to be automatic in its operation, and thus not so 
 apt to cause confusion in one's first attempt to secure a 
 correlation. 
 
 After succeeding with the walking-step, one should take 
 a new sentence and follow a different procedure: Read 
 the sentence aloud until a natural swing is achieved which 
 can be recognized and approximately repeated; then begin 
 to tap with one finger an elastic (accelerating and retarding) 
 serial accompaniment, with as much syncopation as possible. 
 Continue this, with the whole attention concentrated on 
 catching the rhythmic tune obtained by the combined 
 movements of finger and voice. As soon as the rhythmic 
 tune is caught sufficiently to be approximately repeated, 
 let the attention rest more upon the elastic temporal unit, 
 tapped by the finger, in order to notice its acceleration or 
 retarding. Then, finally, direct attention upon the sense 
 and swing of the sentence, and let the beating of time 
 become more and more automatic. 
 
 Any objections that might be urged against the possi- 
 bility of such an experience are refuted by the data ob- 
 tained from the present experiments 17 where most of the 
 observers found it easy to beat time to the phonographic 
 record of prose-beats made by Observer No. 1. The latter 
 was in no way influenced by objective time-beating, but, 
 quite spontaneously, with an automatic facility acquired 
 by years of musical training, tapped upon the drum a 
 series of beats, which on first hearing were judged by most 
 of the observers to be thoroughly irregular. 
 
 The truth of the matter is that the liberties allowed by 
 the introduction of an elastic unit, and the endless possi- 
 bilities of syncopation and substitution, render quite easy 
 to a musical observer the task of fitting a series of unitary 
 pulses to any series of irregular sounds (provided the 
 17 Appendix III, sections xxvii and xxix.
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 13 
 
 sounds do not come too close together to be discriminated 
 or so far apart that they cannot easily be grasped as the 
 boundaries of a continuous interval). Whatever is not 
 explained by syncopation and substitution, is easily ex- 
 plained by acceleration and retarding. We must add to 
 all this the processes of so-called "subjective grouping," 
 both voluntary and involuntary, by means of which our 
 perception of objective conditions, up to a certain degree, 
 comes under the distorting influence of "impressions." 
 Such illusions are fed by our enjoyment of the variegated 
 effects of subjective organization. What needs to be 
 remembered, then, is that for the individual, and conse- 
 quently for psychology, these illusions are in themselves 
 important "facts" of conscious life. 
 
 It is thus that we become aware of the phenomena 
 heralded by Wundt's general statement about the possible 
 rhythmic conception of all series of sounds, and exemplified 
 in the data listed in Appendix III. There are individuals 
 for whom a series of apparently irregular sounds can be 
 easily organized subjectively into a satisfying rhythmic 
 tune. There are also individuals for whom the task is 
 difficult, if not impossible. Prose thus becomes for some 
 observers a sort of music, built upon elastic unitary pulses, 
 sometimes grouped and always syncopating freely; but for 
 others, it remains, and must always remain, an utter 
 mystery, regarded either with indifference or as tantalizing 
 because of its constant suggestion of a rhythm never fully 
 achieved except in spots a so-called "free" amorphous 
 entity, identified merely by the chilling assurance that, at 
 any rate, it is not verse. 
 
 A new standard is thus established for passing judgment 
 upon the rhythm of a sentence or paragraph. The marking 
 of grammatical (dictionary) accent is by itself misleading, 
 except for the purpose of detecting passages of metrical 
 patchwork such as occur in the writings of Ingersoll, or
 
 14 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 unusually long stretches of "iambics" such as have been 
 fished out of Dickens and Ruskin. The reason such 
 "scanning" is misleading, is simply that a slow reading of 
 some of our most unimpeachable prose turns it into just 
 such iambic or trochaic drivel, while a rapid reading of 
 some of the ridiculed passages introduces a varied swing 
 that competes (in ease, spontaneity and appropriateness) 
 with the very best. The stress-patterns of routine scanning 
 have thus little more than suggestive value, when con- 
 sidered apart from the molding influence of tone-color and 
 dominating mood or thought. On the other hand, the 
 stress-patterns of actual experience have great significance, 
 and when combined with the corresponding time, pitch, 
 quality and thought patterns, complete what we mean by 
 the rhythm of language. 
 
 The new standard has for its support not so much its 
 apparent novelty, as its subservience to the psychological 
 facts of individual difference. Observer No. 7 hears a 
 series of irregular prose beats. At first, he pronounces 
 them elusive; later they swing into full musical rank. 
 The rhythmic tune is even capable of approximate notation. 
 Observer No. 10 hears the series to the last as an elusive 
 aggregation of approximately unrelated sounds. Between 
 these two extremes are ranged perceptions of every degree 
 of clarity. 
 
 To test prose-rhythm, therefore, we do not merely mark 
 the accents with the ancient classic symbols, and admire, 
 with an optical delight, the "pseonic" or "dochmiac" 
 pattern presented. If rhythm means anything to the 
 average individual, it means motor response and a sense of 
 organized time. This is what it means in the playing of 
 flutes, the beating of drums, the singing of songs, and in 
 dancing. If it means something else in prose a new word 
 should be coined. But it is idle to claim that it means 
 anything but the same old spell the human race has always
 
 THE NEW STANDARD 15 
 
 found in regulated motion the exciting and soothing 
 effect of beating time, of nodding the head, of swaying the 
 body, of tapping the feet and hands, or, finally, of sub- 
 stituting less obtrusive tensions and relaxations, by means 
 of which the time is marked. Whenever pure images take 
 the place of motor response, we feel that the rhythm is 
 weakened; so when our whole body becomes possessed 
 with the rhythmic pulse, the impression swells accordingly 
 to its climax. 
 
 What is left, then, but to conclude that the sentence 
 which has in its structure the possibility of a maximum of 
 rhythm must be capable of evoking in us a maximum of 
 motor response? To test it, therefore, we must tap to it, 
 nod to it, walk to it, sway to it, chop wood to it, if neces- 
 sary. To do this we must catch its drum-beat tune or 
 rather we must catch the most impelling of the infinite 
 variety of rhythmic tunes which are possible for every 
 sentence, good or bad. If it is easy for us to nod or tap 
 or, for that matter, hoe potatoes to these salient "drum- 
 songs" in which syncopation and substitution have free 
 range the first degree of rhythmic excellence is obtained. 
 A maximum of ease with a maximum of complication adds 
 to this a higher degree of technical merit. If, finally, the 
 associations and suggestions connected with the motor 
 response are appropriate to the mood and thought of the 
 sentence, there is nothing left to be desired. 
 
 From this pinnacle, nevertheless, we must fall to the 
 realization that such enthusiasm means nothing and will 
 ever mean nothing to the self-conscious individual who 
 finds himself a prey to the inhibitions of modern society, 
 the sedate victim of dignity, who dares not climb a tree 
 or handle an axe, whose natural rhythmic response is 
 attenuated, and whose images of time are consequently 
 blurred, whose coordinating processes are so obstructed 
 that it is impossible for syncopation to be instinctively
 
 16 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 enjoyed, or even understood. In spite of all these "de- 
 ficiencies" or "differences," such persons may occupy the 
 highest ranks of purely intellectual eminence. To such 
 passively rhythmic individuals, prose will continue to be 
 prose as usually described the mere negation of verse. 
 To the aggressively rhythmic, it is like everything else in 
 life at its root lies a subjective "scheme," just as 
 binding in its way as that of verse, only less obvious. It 
 is the rhythm of conscious existence, announced so clearly, 
 whether intended or not, by William James in his descrip- 
 tion of our sense of time as "Now! Now! Now!"
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL work upon the rhythm of speech virtually 
 begins with Brticke. 1 His conclusion, however, that the 
 feet in verse are temporally equal, has to be disregarded, 
 not only because of the crudity of his apparatus but because 
 his subjects were instructed to scan in a mechanical fashion. 
 In 1893 Bolton 2 produced the first and what is so far the 
 last attempt to cover the field of rhythm as a whole. In 
 1894 came Meumann's signal contribution. For Meumann 
 rhythm is a mental process by means of which we group 
 sensations of sound into a system of images arranged upon 
 a temporal basis. 3 But besides this type of rhythm he 
 describes a rhythm of the thoughts themselves capable of 
 disturbing strictly temporal relations. Phrases may in this 
 way be considered as units and similar groups recur with 
 satisfactory effect at unequal intervals of time. 4 
 
 Two tendencies thus appear in verse one toward 
 order, one toward freedom. In fact, a certain lawlessness 
 is natural to poetic rhythm. Absolute regularity is un- 
 bearable. Meumann expresses his surprise at Hermann 
 Paul's naive acceptance of Briicke's theory of equal bars. 
 He concedes the validity of Bolton's statement that there 
 
 1 Brticke, E. W., Die physiologischen Grundlagen d. neuhochd. Vers- 
 kunst, Wien, 1871. 
 
 2 Bolton, T. L., Rhythm, Amer. J. of Psy., VI, 1894, p. 145 ff. 
 
 * Meumann, E., Untersuchungen z. Psych, u. Aesth. d. Rhythmus, 
 Philos. Stud., X, 1894, p. 272 ff. 
 4 Ibid., p. 305. 
 
 17
 
 18 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 is a tendency to slow up or to hasten the number of 
 elements in a group in order to make the group fit the 
 natural attention period, 5 and that this develops in verse 
 as a tendency to preserve regular intervals from one chief 
 accent to another; but he maintains that there is present 
 also a disorganizing influence that can be traced back to 
 three sources: melody interest, tempo changes due to 
 feeling, and finally logical groupings, cutting across the 
 temporal divisions. Meumann should have emphasized 
 the fact that a similar tendency toward freedom, whatever 
 may be regarded as its source, is present in regular music. 
 The neglect of this incontestable truth accounts in part 
 for the inability of all attempts up to the present to make 
 quite clear what there is in common between music and 
 verse to say nothing of music and prose. Experi- 
 mentally this has received very little attention. 
 
 Meumann contends that the intellectual processes are 
 always present in rhythm and that the organic phenom- 
 ena are only accompaniments. 6 Breath adapts itself to 
 rhythm. 7 There is most organization when least feeling. 
 Titchener, however, has brought to notice what seems to 
 be a contradiction in Meumann's attitude toward rhythm, 
 inasmuch as M. K. Smith 8 leads us to infer that later, 
 at least, Meumann regarded rhythm as an "emotion dis- 
 charging itself in ordered movement," rather than as a 
 perception. 
 
 To the present writer the most signal gaps in Meumann's 
 investigation appear to result from his failure to appreciate 
 the full meaning and possibilities of acceleration and 
 retarding on the one hand, and of syncopation on the 
 other, as means of bringing what are apparently temporal 
 
 * Meumann, E., Untersuchungen z. Psych, u. Aesth. d. Rhythmus, 
 Philos. Stud., X, 1894, p. 405 8. 
 
 Op. tit., p. 272. 7 Ibid., p. 270. - 
 
 8 Smith, M. K., Rhythmus u. Arbeit, Philos. Stud., XVI, 1900.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 19 
 
 irregularities into a musically accepted scheme that shall 
 be both simple and clear. Throughout his work, more- 
 over, the tremendous opportunities for adducing the 
 principle of substitutional equivalence or occult balance as 
 an explanatory factor in the perception of elusive rhythm, 
 have been almost entirely disregarded. 
 
 In 1895 Binet and Courtier 9 made researches on the 
 irregularity of supposedly equal musical intervals when 
 played even by expert performers. In successions of five 
 notes it was found that the faster the notes were played 
 the more irregular were the intervals. 10 In 1897 Courtier u 
 concluded that the memory for tones and the memory for 
 rhythm do not always go together. About the same time 
 Meyer 12 maintained that the rhythm of song and poetry is 
 directly perceived only as motor rhythm and only by the 
 person who sings or recites. In other words, it is only 
 indirectly perceived by the auditor through the movements 
 it provokes. 
 
 From this time on the accounts of various researches 
 begin to multiply at an increasing rate until a sort of lull 
 is reached after 1913. Hurst and McKay 13 investigate the 
 time relations in verse. Lanier's theory of regular musical 
 relations based upon a normal bar is felt to be untenable. 14 
 Guest is criticized for ignoring the time element, and 
 comment is made upon Gummere's admitting tune merely 
 as a regulative element. Hurst and McKay contend that 
 
 9 Binet and Courtier, Recherches graphiques sur la musique, 
 L'Annee Psychol, II, 1895, p. 201. 
 
 10 Ibid., p. 215. 
 
 11 Courtier, J., Communication sur la memoire musicale, III Inter. 
 Kongr. f. Psy., Miinchen, 1897, p. 240. 
 
 12 Meyer, E. A., Beitrdge z. deutsch. Metrik, Die neu. Spr., VI, 
 1896, p. 122. 
 
 1J Hurst, A. S., and McKay, J., Experiments on the time relations of 
 poetical meters, Univ. of Toronto St., Psy. Ser., Ill, 1899. 
 " Ibid., p. 158.
 
 20 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 both time and accent may occasionally be ignored, allowing 
 the thought alone to regulate the rhythm. 16 As a result 
 of their research an approximately uniform length of foot 
 is established, but the iamb is found to be longer on an 
 average than the trochee. 16 
 
 Shaw and Wrinch 17 maintain that each person has for 
 his unit of time a certain interval which may vary, how- 
 ever, on different occasions. This unit of time is a psychic 
 compound and is the basis for estimating intervals. 
 Schumann's theory is criticized. Feelings of expectation 
 and surprise do not mediate the estimation of the intervals, 
 as Schumann would have us believe. 18 This unit of time 
 is close to half a second, 19 and corresponds to what Verrier 
 later applies to speech rhythm as a "vocal step." 
 
 In 1901 appeared the fifth edition of Sievers's Phonetik. 
 In Vorwort XI he appears inclined to oppose experimental 
 phonetics, commenting upon the inevitable self-conscious- 
 ness involved in using mouth-pieces, etc. The instrument 
 for photographing sound, constructed by Dr. Pegram and 
 the author, seems to obviate entirely this disadvantage. 
 Like Meumann, Sievers 20 speaks of two antagonistic 
 rhythmic tendencies, one toward freedom and variety, the 
 other toward equal "Sprechtakte." It is significant that 
 he mentions the possibility of beating time to artistic 
 declamation. 21 He finds a tendency for prose to be divided 
 into sections of approximately equal duration, which can ap- 
 pear even when the separate "Sprechtakte" seem of unequal 
 
 15 Hurst. A. S., and McKay, J., Experiments on the time relations of 
 poetical meters, Univ. of Toronto St., Psy. Ser., Ill, 1899, p. 162. 
 18 Ibid., p. 166. 
 
 17 Shaw, M. A., and Wrinch, S. F., A contribution to the psychology 
 of time, Unit, of Tor. St., Psy. Ser., II, 1899, p. 121. 
 
 18 Ibid., p. 124. Ibid., p. 129. 
 
 10 Sievera, E., Grundzuge der Phonetik, Leipzig, 5th ed., 1901, p. 
 266. 
 
 11 Ibid., p. 266.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 21 
 
 duration. The later work of Sievers 22 is colored by his 
 interest in speech melody, but for his generalizations in 
 this direction he seems as yet to have adduced no definite 
 and convincing data. 
 
 Sievers is known to have a delicate ear for musical 
 effects, so that it is extremely puzzling that although he so 
 often discusses the time-relations in rhythm, he should give 
 them such scant treatment in these studies of speech 
 melody. 23 "The individuality of a melody is absolutely 
 dependent," says Puffer, 24 "on its rhythm, that is, on the 
 relative time-value of its tones." Gurney makes similar 
 statements. The case is plain if we take the stirring tune 
 of "Dixie," for instance. Play it or sing it with an equal 
 time-interval for each change in pitch, and it becomes a 
 melancholy tune, indeed. No doubt the objective irregu- 
 larity in the temporal-intervals of speech is chiefly to blame 
 for their being shelved in the discussion. The missing key, 
 of course, has to be supplied by a lucid explanation of the 
 processes by means of which a highly rhythmic observer, 
 such as No. 7 hi the present series of experiments, is able 
 to evoke subjective order out of objective chaos. 
 
 In the "Metrische Studien," Sievers, adopting Saran's 
 definitions, refers to "time-organization and stress-grada- 
 tion" as "by far the most important" among the factors in 
 rhythm. 25 Elsewhere, 26 he indicates that the "feet" in 
 alliterative verse approximate "equal duration." No 
 "timer" in the past could have quarreled with this attitude. 
 
 22 Zur dlteren Judith, Prag, 1908; Rhythmisch-melodische Studien, 
 Heidelberg, 1912. 
 
 13 Sievers, E., Rhythmisch-melodische Studien, Heidelberg, 1912, p. 
 10 ff., p. 41 ff. 
 
 24 Puffer, E., The psychology of beauty, p. 185. 
 
 K Sievers, Metrische Studien, Kon. sdch. Ges. d. Wiss. Abh. phil.- 
 hist. KL, XXI, p. 31. 
 
 * Sievers, Zur Rhyth. d. germ. Alliterationsverses, BeitrOge z. Gesch. 
 d. deut. Sprache, X, 1885, p. 221.
 
 22 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 Our wonder is consequently all the greater when we find 
 that Sievers's two-beat theory for Old English verse, in its 
 application, at any rate, falls back upon the assumption 
 that time is not so important a factor as we imagined. 
 This is discussed later in the chapter in connection with 
 Schipper, who adopts the two-beat theory, after committing 
 himself, more inextricably than Sievers, to a strict time 
 basis for poetical rhythm. 
 
 Wallin 27 has shown to what an extent the mere visual 
 arrangement of language in schematic lines instead of a 
 straightforward succession of words is often the only 
 effective aid in distinguishing verse from prose. Deprived 
 of this aid, three subjects declared verses of Tennyson and 
 Browning to be prose. Only one out of a group pronounced 
 Browning poetry. 28 Wallin advises using the interval 
 between centroids as a unit of measure, and thus dispenses 
 with bar and foot as terms. 29 Prose observes no systematic 
 arrangement of the intervals. 30 Westphal, Lotze, and 
 Lamer emphasize tune as the basis of rhythm; Guest, 
 Gummere, and others maintain the importance of stress. 
 The centroid theory is concerned with both time and 
 stress. Time and rhythm, however, are not on the same 
 basis; rhythm is less a matter of judgment than of feeling 
 or "a rhythmic sense." The experiments show that 
 trochaic rhythm appears more pleasing than iambic. 
 Lovers of melody and harmony prefer slower tempos than 
 those which appear most pleasing to observers whose 
 endowment is chiefly rhythmical. 31 The larger fluctuations 
 of attention alone may possess power to attune and cadence 
 the soul. 32 Such a hypothesis would make it possible for 
 prose to be considered as a rhythmical succession of fairly 
 long segments marked off by the crests of attention. 
 
 17 Wallin, J. E. W., Researches on the rhythm of speech, Yale Pa. 
 St., IX, 1901. K Ibid., p. 64. " Ibid., p. 113. 
 
 10 Ibid., p. 114. Ibid., p. 216. Ibid., p. 142.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 23 
 
 MacDougall 33 reviews the various estimates that have 
 been computed for the "indifference point" or easiest 
 interval of time in which a sensible object can be clearly 
 grasped. According to different authorities it varies from 
 about .375 sec. to .775 sec. The artistic effect of rhythm 34 
 is not due to any objective physical relations of time and 
 so forth, but is simply due to arousing in an observer a 
 feeling of pleasure, equivalence, perfection. The conditions 
 of a rhythmic impression are recurrence, accentuation, and 
 rate; but rhythmic forms are not rhythm until they initiate 
 movement. 36 In any case there is "properly no repetition 
 of identical sequences"; variation is always present. 36 "If 
 the temporal conditions be not fulfilled (and the subject 
 cannot create them) no impression of rhythm is possible." 
 Accent, however, may be easily contributed by the ob- 
 server. 37 By "rate" is meant the rate at which rhythm 
 can be readily perceived not too fast, not too slow. 
 Stress alone cannot make rhythm; the sense or impression 
 of temporal equivalence is the sine qua non. 38 
 
 Irregular movements, according to Miyaki, have a 
 "constant tendency to become rhythmical, notwithstanding 
 the voluntary effort of the subject to execute the move- 
 ments at irregular intervals." 39 In this connection it 
 should be remembered that Meumann 40 has already made 
 clear the fact that all regular or rhythmical movements 
 tend to become automatic and that this automatism is of 
 great service to a performer in the matter of keeping time. 
 
 w MacDougall, R., Rhythm, time, and number, Am. J. of Psy., 
 XIII, 1902, p. 93 ff. 
 
 84 MacDougall, The structure of simple rhythm forms, Ha.ro. Ps. 
 St., I, 1903, p. 310. 
 
 34 Ibid., p. 319. M Ibid., p. 319. 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 321. Ibid., p. 352. 
 
 19 Miyaki, I., Researches on rhythmic action, Yale Psy. St., X, 1902, 
 p. 4. 
 
 40 Meumann, op. cit., p. 316.
 
 24 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 In Miner's researches 41 rhythm is found to be most 
 pleasant when a motor response is reinforced by sensations 
 accompanying the regular rhythms of the body. Once 
 instituted it is fostered because it serves the purpose of 
 economy. Rhythm is defined neither as a pure perception 
 nor as a pure emotion, but as "the uniform perception of 
 successive groups of objectively localized sensations, accom- 
 panied by a characteristic emotional tone." Rhythm is 
 the "uniform recurrence of sensations of movement or 
 tension, concurring in regular periods with sensations from 
 an objective series of stimuli." A rhythm of smell, taste, 
 touch, and vision is just as possible as a rhythm of hear- 
 ing. 42 Visual rhythm is less distinct than auditory rhythm, 
 but just as direct. 43 "Both auditory and visual rhythm 
 seem to be illusions due to the muscular reaction of the 
 subject, combined with the sensations from objective 
 serial stimuli." u 
 
 According to Stetson, 45 rhythm assumes a movement 
 cycle involving the activity of two opposing sets of muscles. 
 "Every rhythm is dynamic; it consists of actual move- 
 ment." 46 "If the basis of rhythm is to be found in 
 muscular sensations, rather than in the supposed activity 
 of some special 'mental' function, the nature of the 
 movement cycle involved is of the greatest interest." 47 
 Upon this same muscular basis Bingham 48 founds his 
 motor theory for melody. "Rise in pitch is not merely 
 
 41 Miner, J. B., Motor, visual, and applied rhythms, Mon. Supp., 
 Psy. Rev., V, 1903, p. 20. 
 
 42 Miner, op. tit., p. 40. Ibid., p. 71. " Ibid., p. 72. 
 
 46 Stetson, R. H., Rhythm and rhyme, Harv. Psy. St., I, 1903, p. 
 453. 
 
 48 Stetson, Motor theory of rhyme and discrete succession, Psy. 
 Rev., XII, 1905. 
 
 47 Stetson, Rhythm and rhyme, p. 453. 
 
 48 Bingham, W. V. D., Studies in melody, Mon. Supp., Psy. Rev., 
 XII, 1910, p. 86.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 25 
 
 a result of increased tension of the vocal apparatus: it 
 likewise produces increased muscular tension in the hearer. 
 A falling inflection at the close consequently serves to 
 hasten the relaxation process which marks the completion 
 of the melody." Two or more tones are felt to be related 
 when there is "community of organized response." The 
 effect of melody is a "ground-swell muscular process." 
 
 Scripture defines rhythmic movements as "movements 
 repeated at apparently equal intervals." 49 He advocates 
 the measurement of verse according to the centroid sys- 
 tem. 50 Speech is a "flow of auditory and motor energy," 
 with no possibility of division into separate blocks such as 
 letters, syllables, words, feet, etc., except in a purely 
 arbitrary manner that does not represent the actual case. 61 
 A word has as many syllables as it is "felt" to have 
 centroids; but on account of the substitutional value of 
 pitch and duration in determining weight, "the centroid 
 will rarely coincide with the maximum of energy." 52 In 
 other words, factors besides intensity will have to be 
 considered in determining its position. 
 
 Various passages of spoken prose, recorded phonograph- 
 ically, have been measured at different times by Scripture; 
 and some of them, such as the speech by Depew, he 
 transcribes into musical notation. 83 No attempt is made, 
 however, to organize the transcription into regular bars. 
 The chief objection to be raised against his tables, in which 
 amplitudes of vibration in the phonographic record are 
 recorded in minute detail, is that no adequate corrections 
 are made for the errors of resonance pertaining to the pho- 
 
 " Scripture, E. W M The new psychology, London, 1898, p. 180. 
 
 60 Scripture, Elements of experimental phonetics, N. Y., 1902, p. 
 554 ff. 
 
 " Ibid., p. 550. " Ibid., p. 451. 
 
 M Scripture, Researches in experimental phonetics, Washington, 
 1906, p. 71.
 
 26 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 nograph diaphragms employed in recording the speeches. 
 It is assumed that the resistance of the wax is just enough 
 to overcome by damping the exaggeration of amplitudes at 
 certain elevations of pitch. But even after diaphragms are 
 carefully calibrated and approximate corrections made, any 
 attempt to locate centroids in the continuum of ordinary 
 speech is likely to entail results of the most untrustworthy 
 nature. The best that objective measurement can do is to 
 obtain maxima of pitch elevation and maxima of recorded 
 amplitude. These together with elements of duration can 
 be separately listed, but to obtain the real intensities or to 
 combine the various factors making up a centroid into a 
 point of measurable distinctness seems to be more than we 
 can ever hope to achieve. 
 
 It was found by Sanford and Triplett M that when a 
 number of children were asked to tap nursery rhymes as 
 they recited them a variety of interpretations resulted. 
 As an example, hi the case of "Bye Baby Bunting," four 
 of the children gave four accents to the line, ten gave 
 three, and one gave two. It is interesting to note in this 
 connection that in Scripture's measurement of "Who killed 
 Cock Robin?" two centroids are assigned to the line, and 
 this proportionment is advocated as a proper index for the 
 schematic nature of the verse at any rate, for the particu- 
 lar version of it under consideration. 66 This, of course, 
 corresponds to the familiar theory of Coleridge, as carried 
 into practice in the case of "Christabel." It must be 
 remembered, however, that Scripture does not ignore the 
 temporal element as fundamental in the conception of 
 rhythm. Moreover, his definition of rhythmic movements, 
 referred to above, as movements repeated at apparently 
 equal intervals, shows that it is our impression of the 
 
 M Sanford, E. C., and Triplett, N., Studies of rhythm and meter, 
 Am. J. of Pay., VI, 1910, p. 388. 
 
 " Scripture, Elements of experimental phonetics, p. 554.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 27 
 
 time relations, rather than their objective value, that is 
 significant. 
 
 The rhythm of work has received attention chiefly from 
 Biicher 66 and Miss Smith. 67 The former contends that 
 half-animal sounds gave primitive man a feeling of relief. 68 
 These sounds were strengthened, and thus song developed 
 out of a series of senseless "Lautreihen." Tone rhythm 
 supported movement rhythm, and breath forced both to 
 cooperate. These nonsense songs were found an assistance 
 in primitive labor and are considered by Biicher as an 
 origin of rhythm prior to the dance. 69 Biicher's theory 60 
 of a second stage in the development of rhythm, in which 
 words and sentences were interpolated between the "Laut- 
 reihen" that accompanied work, is purely fanciful. 
 
 One interesting result of Miss Smith's research 61 is that 
 the observers think they are working to time-beats when 
 they are not. The exactness with which their movements 
 and the beats of an accompanying metronome coincide 
 varies according to the individual difference of the subjects. 
 In any case, the relation between the two operations is a 
 very free one. 62 The statement of Miss Smith's M that 
 "there is no bad rhythm" or, as interpreted by Squire, 64 
 that the perception of rhythm is present in completeness 
 or vanishes entirely, is a point of departure for the latter's 
 genetic study of the subject. Rhythmic forms can in fact 
 be classified in the order of their complexity. 68 The 
 earliest rhythm, genetically, to which children respond is 
 
 56 Biicher, K., Arbeit und Rhythmus, 4th edition, Leipzig, 1909. 
 " Smith, M. K., Rhythmus und Arbeit, Philos. St., XVI, 1900. 
 68 Biicher, op. cit., p. 359. Biicher, op. cit., p. 557 ff. 
 
 80 Ibid., p. 360. 61 Smith, op. cit., p. 305. 
 
 62 Ibid., p. 305. Ibid., p. 392. 
 
 84 Squire, C. R., A genetic study of rhythm, Am. J. of Psy., XII, 
 1901, p. 493. 
 Ibid., p. 540.
 
 28 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 even simpler than Poe's spondee, 66 which implies a two- 
 syllable group. The evidence for this is that children in 
 their first reactions to rhythm in speech give equal value 
 to each syllable, thus creating what Squire calls "the 
 primary form" of rhythm. This corresponds to what the 
 author of the present treatise refers to as "unitary pulses." 
 The second stage in the children's progress, according to 
 Squire, who also refers to Bohme, 67 is to distribute so many 
 accents to the line, irrespective of regularity. There is no 
 question 68 that grouping by two's is psychologically prior 
 to grouping by three's. One of Squire's subjects, a boy, 69 
 succeeds fairly well in keeping step to iambic and trochaic 
 rhythm, but fails completely with dactylic and anapaestic 
 forms. 
 
 Time is the basis of rhythm, 70 but the character of the 
 grouping is not necessarily dependent on the time-order. 
 The rhythm, however, will become unpleasant if the rate 
 of succession exceeds "the natural rate of the individual." 71 
 The negro's rhythmic ecstasy is not due to associative 
 factors, such as are emphasized by Lipps and Groos, but is 
 due to the feelings produced by the rhythm itself. Of 
 these the simple sense feelings, most evident in the case of 
 the negro, derive their pleasantness from "the moderate 
 and regular functioning of the bodily organs and the 
 resulting stimulation of the cortex." n We find, however, 
 in another place, 73 that feeling is not essential to the 
 perception of rhythm, inasmuch as rhythmic groups occur 
 in states of indifference so far as feeling is concerned. 
 Miss Smith is considered 74 to neglect the perceptual 
 
 88 Poe, E. A., The rationale of verse, Works, VI, ed. by Stedman and 
 Woodberry, N. Y., 1908, p. 58. 
 
 87 Bohme, F. M., Deutsches Kinderlied, etc., Leipzig, 1897, p. 8. 
 
 88 Squire, op. cU., p. 536. 8 Ibid., p. 573. 70 Ibid., p. 541. 
 71 Ibid., p. 588. Ibid., p. 588 ff. 
 Ibid., p. 587. 74 Ibid., p. 586.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 29 
 
 elements in rhythm; not so, Wundt. "All the phenomena 
 of rhythm can be explained by the facts of perception." 76 
 "Perception of rhythm may fail because of a physiological 
 defect, auditory or motor." It may be due to purely 
 "psychological" causes, inability to control attention or 
 to compare sounds or movements, etc. 76 An intelligent 
 observer may not direct his attention upon the series of 
 sounds, but upon the reason for the experiment, 77 and thus 
 appear deficient in rhythmic perception. 
 
 In 1904 Marbe 78 published his investigation of rhythm in 
 German prose. He himself scans the first and second 1000 
 words of Goethe's "St. Rochusfest" and Heine's "Harz- 
 reise"; the second and third 1000 are scanned by a collab- 
 orator. The method of scanning consists in marking the 
 accented syllables. After the average number of unac- 
 cented syllables per interval is calculated, and the frequency 
 of each variety of "foot" obtained for each 1000 words, 
 the conclusion is drawn that the average foot is shorter 
 in Goethe than in Heine. Following Marbe's method, 
 Lipsky 79 undertakes an investigation of the rhythm of 
 English prose. "Style and rhythm of prose are to a very- 
 large extent identical." 80 Passages from various English 
 writers, including Browne, Addison, Lamb, Carlyle, Ruskin, 
 Emerson, Howells, Spencer, Henry James, and Ingersoll are 
 scanned according to Marbe's method, and the results 
 tabulated. Ruskin's "Modern Painters" has the shortest 
 foot-length; "Spencer has both the longest foot-length and 
 word-length." 81 Browne, Lamb, and Emerson use phrases 
 of three accents, to a large extent. 82 In the later work of 
 Howells the measures are found to grow closer; the rhythm 
 
 76 Squire, op. tit., p. 586. 78 Ibid., p. 574. " Ibid., p. 575. 
 . 78 Marbe, K., Uber d. Rhythmus d. Prosa, Giessen, 1904. 
 
 79 Lipsky, A., Rhythm as a distinguishing characteristic of prose 
 style, N. Y., 1907. 
 
 Ibid., p. 40. 81 Ibid., p. 29. M Ibid., p. 26.
 
 30 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 of Henry James grows more and more "open," etc. Many 
 of the results of Marbe and Lipsky are of interest, but 
 their procedure, as a whole, is unscientific. The conditions 
 under which the scanning was made were not regulated 
 with sufficient care. Very slight consideration was taken of 
 such influences as fatigue, habit, practice, and suggestion; 
 and too much final importance is laid upon the results of 
 single scannings of long passages made by individuals 
 necessarily subject to varying moods and the disturbing 
 effects of time and place. 
 
 The danger of depending too much upon tapping methods 
 is emphasized by Brown. 83 Any system of tapping as an 
 accompaniment to sounds not made by the observer 
 involves too much the element of expectation, and is 
 vitiated by the observer's individual rhythmic tendency. 
 Freely tapped rhythms are of great value in the study 
 of the general subject but do not concern the rhythm 
 of speech. Experiments with the phonograph involve 
 distortion. 
 
 Brown considers the error of method up to date to be 
 that rhythm has been treated as an art form instead of as 
 a form of motor expression. Attention should be directed 
 to the speaker rather than to the hearer, who is open to 
 too many illusions and misconceptions. 84 "Meaning" inter- 
 feres with estimates of duration and intensity, but Brown 
 disclaims an attempt to investigate its effect. 86 Since 
 tapping by the speaker controls the voice too much, he 
 makes use of a tambour to record nonsense syllables 
 uttered by the observer. "Grouping in rhythm is an 
 affective experience and if we place it simply in the dimen- 
 sion of strain and relaxation it becomes at once clear why 
 no regular time relations are necessary. 86 The regularity 
 becomes a matter of recurrence of strain at the end of a 
 
 M Brown, W., Time in English verse rhythm, N. Y., 1908, p. 9 ff. 
 M Ibid., p. 2. Ibid., p. 3. * Ibid., p. 75.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 31 
 
 definite cycle. The muscles may take a longer or a shorter 
 time to accomplish their cycle and the strain may not 
 come at equal intervals of time, but the swing is there and 
 from one place to the next like place is a definite mental 
 state held together by the continuous circular process." 
 
 This appears to be an attempt to remove the experience 
 of rhythm from too definite a connection with the dimen- 
 sion of time, and place it in the "dimension of strain and 
 relaxation." In 1911 Brown 87 seems to have changed his 
 point of view. After saying that the "only undisputed 
 character of rhythm is the impression of regularity which 
 it occasions," 88 he states that "all recurrence is a temporal 
 matter," 89 and that rhythm is "primarily temporal." 90 
 Accent may be necessary in order to have "points of 
 emphasis," but it is not the distinctive feature of rhythm. 91 
 "The accentual features while necessary are not at the 
 root of the phenomena." w 
 
 Wundt M regards the sensations in the joints and muscles 
 as the primary origin of time-images. There is no real 
 tune-sense, but temporal properties are attached to our 
 various ideas. 94 Thus arise images of speed and of dura- 
 tion. The sensations accompanying the perception of a 
 time series of auditory stimuli are largely due to tension of 
 the ear-drum and action of the musculus tensor tympani. 96 
 Automatic rhythmic movements do not prove a conscious- 
 ness of time, as even our walking is usually timeless. 
 Such movements are due to the "physiological rhythm of 
 the innervation process." M Nevertheless from our walk- 
 ing-step the whole body takes a rhythm, and the steps 
 
 87 Brown, Temporal and accentual rhythm, Psy. Rev., XVIII, 1911. 
 
 88 Ibid., p. 336. 89 Ibid., p. 343. Ibid., p. 344. 
 91 Ibid., p. 344. n Ibid., p. 346. 
 
 98 Wundt, W., Grundzuge d. physiolog. Psychol., Leipzig, 1911, III, 
 p. 24. 
 
 M Ibid., p. 2. 95 Ibid., p. 19. " Ibid., p. 4.
 
 32 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 themselves give us time-images as soon as we attend to 
 them. The lucky coincidence that the average double 
 step is approximately one second (.98) assists us in esti- 
 mating tune. The interval of time most easily estimated 
 lies between one second and one-fifth of a second. One- 
 half a second or the duration of a single average walking- 
 step may be considered as the most convenient unit or 
 "indifference point," in regard to which least errors of 
 estimation are likely to occur. 97 
 
 The cooperation of the exciting and inhibiting forces 
 which our central functions undergo, puts all life upon a 
 basis of vibration. Every movement has a definite regu- 
 larity or law of its own. All irregular movements, accord- 
 ingly, can be considered as rhythmic fragments. 98 This is 
 of particular significance in connection with spoken prose. 
 
 In general, a falling or trochaic rhythm is usual in 
 German unimpassioned speech; the rising or iambic form 
 produces an exciting effect. In Romance languages, the 
 rising rhythm is more common. In the development, 
 however, of a sense of rhythmic "measure" we are probably 
 below the standard of the Greeks. 99 
 
 Music and speech both have their probable common 
 origin in a song-like form of speech. 100 The march-song, 
 work-song, and dance-song are united in the primitive 
 religious song, out of which came poetry. Going still 
 further back, the movements of the body in walking sug- 
 gested regular marching, to which sound accompaniments 
 were later added. Work carried rhythm to a further stage 
 on account of its demands for regular movement, and 
 finally the dance emerges after musical motives have been 
 conceived. Speech thus occupies a mediating position, 
 adding more complicated motor elements to the preceding 
 awkward movements. In walking we get a natural origin 
 
 97 Wundt, op. tit., p. 13 ff. Ibid., p. 23 ff. 
 
 88 Ibid., p. 15. 10 Ibid., II, p. 620.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 33 
 
 for rhythmic perception, but later, in the dance, the rhythm 
 of sound in music reacts upon the body. 101 
 
 Established results with regard to time illusions are 
 reviewed by Wundt. Large intervals usually are judged 
 too small; small intervals, too large. The "indifference 
 point" at which they are most correctly judged averages 
 about .6 second, corresponding to a single walking-step. 
 When this interval is "filled," it is usually overestimated. 102 
 Since there is no absolute time measure, illusions refer to 
 relation and concern either temporal size (velocity illu- 
 sions) or temporal displacements. A regular series often 
 seems to get faster. A long series always seems faster than 
 a short series, when the units are equal. This is due to 
 attention. The difference in impression between "empty" 
 and "filled" intervals depends upon their length. A filled 
 interval, if sh'ort (from .5 to 1.5 seconds), seems longer 
 than an equal empty interval; but if long (two seconds or 
 over), it seems less. A long pause before or after a note 
 gives the effect of an accent. No series of impressions is 
 possible that cannot in some way be comprehended as 
 rhythmic. 103 
 
 According to Wundt, the pleasantness of rhythm depends 
 upon two elements: the repetition of feelings of tension 
 and the contrast between feelings of tension and relaxa- 
 tion. 104 This is complicated by elements of speed and 
 number of accents. Rising rhythm with very great 
 acceleration of speed causes a feeling of unpleasantness; 
 falling rhythm at very slow speed causes a feeling of 
 tension. The more accents, the more excitement. Accents 
 crowded and clashing cause great excitement; irregularly 
 distributed, cause excitement plus unpleasantness. Rising 
 rhythm is exciting; falling rhythm is soothing. Between 
 these two lie series of an amphibrachic nature, in which 
 
 101 Wundt, op. tit., Ill, p. 32 ff. m Ibid., p. 48 ff. 
 
 1M Ibid., p. 39 ff. l <* Ibid., p. 144 ff.
 
 34 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 the second member of a group of three is accented. 108 
 Unpleasant effects are due to exceeding the limits of easy 
 grasp for groups, unmotivized departures from a rhythmic 
 series, or merely monotonous repetition. 106 The affective 
 tendency of rhythm, in general, is chiefly to excite or to 
 soothe, with compensation and contrast as elements of 
 variety. 107 
 
 One of the most recent investigations of the psychology 
 of time is that of Benussi 108 who feels that past research 
 has neglected too much the illusions accompanying filled 
 intervals. A short interval, when divided in two, seems 
 much larger; a long interval with manifold filling seems 
 much shorter. 109 An interval seems shorter when filled 
 with mental work, whether hard or easy. 110 Subjective 
 time-size depends usually upon the intensity degree of 
 attention, but in forced cases, upon whether the similarity 
 or difference of the impressions bounding a time-interval 
 is the more striking. 111 The interval diminishes when the 
 two limits are felt as a group. Benussi's three chief factors 
 in time perception are: I. The "individualizing" of inter- 
 vals into short, long, and indifferent. II. The distribution 
 of attention during time perception. III. The distribution 
 of "strikingness" upon the contending elements of filling, 
 extension, and limits. 112 
 
 In contrast to the theories for the origin of poetry 
 advanced by Wundt, Bticher, and others, Verrier 113 main- 
 tains that its origin is neither in the rhythm of work nor 
 of dancing, but in the prose "segments" of every-day 
 conversation. These segments, whether "short" or 
 
 106 Wundt, op. cit., p. 206. 106 Ibid., p. 142. 107 Ibid., p. 156. 
 
 108 Benussi, V., Psychologic d. Zeitauffassung, Heidelberg, 1913. 
 
 109 Ibid., p. 419, uo Ibid., p. 486. 
 1U Ibid., p. 5. m Ibid., p. 505. 
 
 m Verrier, P., Essai sur les prindpes de la metrique anglaise, 
 Paris, 1909-1910, III, p. 71.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 35 
 
 "long," 114 fall within the limits of the "indifference" 
 interval in time estimation. The longer segments, thus, 
 do not exceed three syllables or the length of a rather 
 slow walking-step. Segments are measured from strong 
 vowel to strong vowel and according to their average 
 length each person is accorded his "natural rhythm" or 
 "vocal step." This may be regarded as his unit for speech 
 measurement. In experimenting upon three Englishmen, 116 
 Verrier finds "an unconscious tendency to bring the con- 
 secutive rhythmic segments to an equal duration." There 
 results "a relative shortening of sounds, according as the 
 number of the syllables of the segments increases." Eng- 
 lish prose 116 modulates incessantly, in all probability, from 
 two to three-beat rhythm. "Whether there is or not 
 dependence between the rhythm of pronunciation and 
 that of walking, they both have one single and same cause: 
 the necessity of coordinating and regulating our muscular 
 movements, in a word, of making them rhythmic, in order 
 to diminish the expense of energy." 117 
 
 Emphatic pauses and variations due to feeling cause 
 "at every instant accelerations or retardings of different 
 kinds." 118 Rhythm enjoys irregularities just as harmony 
 enjoys dissonances. 119 The equality of time-intervals is an 
 illusion. The individual rhythm of the speaker adapts 
 itself to the fluctuations of sentiment without giving the 
 impression of being unrhythmical. Rhythm is pleasing 
 when it coincides with an individual's inner rhythm, 
 which in itself is subject to variations. 120 In any case, ar- 
 tistic rhythm depends upon the return of the beat at 
 equal (apparently equal) intervals of time. 121 "In objective 
 
 114 Verrier, P., Essai sur les principes de la metrique anglaise, 
 Paris, 1909-1919, III, p. 63. 
 
 116 Ibid., p. 67. u Ibid., p. 70. " 7 Ibid., p. 35. 118 Ibid., p. 325. 
 
 119 Verrier, Les variations temporettes du rythme, J. de Psy. Norm, et 
 Path., 1913, I, p. 18. 
 
 uo Verrier, op. tit., p. 16 ff. " l Ibid., p. 24.
 
 36 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 reality the feet of our verses approximate absolute equality 
 in the same degree as the measures of music." 122 This 
 conclusion is the result of experiments in French versifica- 
 tion. In general, Verrier appears to believe that rhythm 
 depends upon the illusion of equal time-intervals for its 
 basis, but enjoys the introduction of a measure of irregu- 
 larity per se. When the speaker or hearer is unconscious 
 of objective irregularity his pleasure in the illusion of 
 equality is what predominates. 
 
 The "weight" element is made of chief importance in 
 the investigations of Landry. 123 Accent itself depends 
 upon "energy, and, above all, duration." Rhythm is 
 defined as "the march of energy," and "the relations of 
 size and succession hi number, energy, and duration." 124 
 The composite effect of number, duration, and energy of 
 syllable constitutes weight; the composite effect of number, 
 "ampleur," and "weight," constitutes "equilibrium." 126 
 Syllabic equilibrium is the basis of French declamation. 126 
 No very definite conclusions are drawn for the constitution 
 of rhythm in prose, although a number of interesting 
 measurements are made. 
 
 More theoretical in its nature is Saran's treatment of 
 rhythm. Rhythm is described 127 as "every organization, 
 pleasing as such, of sensuously perceptible occurrences." 
 This organization implies three elements: a weight grada- 
 tion, a time gradation, and a unification based upon pleas- 
 ingness. Rhythm is purely mental in its origin. 128 The 
 psychic impression of "weight" is due to phonetic factors, 
 such as stress, pitch, and so forth; but it is itself an ele- 
 
 m Vender, L'isochronisme dans le vers franfais, Paris, 1912, p. 48. 
 1M Landry, E., La theorie du rythme et le rythme du franfais de- 
 dame, Paris, 1911. 
 
 IM Ibid., p. 40. 12S Ibid., p. 37 ff. 1M Ibid., p. 382. 
 
 117 Saran, F., Deutsche Verslehre, Miinchen, 1907, p. 138. 
 " Saran, op. cit., p. 139.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 37 
 
 ment of accent which is defined as "a complex of selected and 
 clearly organized weight, duration, and unity relations." m 
 Sievers is criticized for confusing weight and accent. Artistic 
 prose is seldom rhythmic, often " unrhythmic, " but 
 chiefly "rhythmless," containing an element of ordering 
 that should not be called rhythm. 130 In these distinctions 
 Saran, in spite of his view that rhythm is purely a matter 
 of intellectual perception, appears to stress the binding 
 qualities of the prose itself, rather than the various effects 
 one passage might have upon a number of hearers. A 
 motor theory seems to be distinctly foreign to his view of 
 the subject, which as a whole he does not treat in thorough 
 accordance with any accepted psychological system. His 
 definition of rhythm, moreover, stressing as a condition the 
 element of pleasantness, excludes the well-known cases, 
 mentioned by Squire, 131 where the perception of rhythm is 
 accompanied by feelings of indifference. 
 
 Schipper 132 defines rhythm as "regular order in the 
 succession of different kinds of motion." " All rhythm, 
 therefore, in our dancing, poetry, and music comes to us 
 from ancient times, and is of the same nature in these 
 three arts." Dancing is the typical form and source of 
 all rhythmic movement. 133 The time element is plainly 
 emphasized in his definition of poetical rhythm 134 which is 
 a "special symmetry, easily recognizable as such, in the 
 succession of syllables of different phonetic quality, which 
 convey a sense, and are so arranged as to be uttered in 
 divisions of time which are symmetrical in their relation 
 to one another." "In prose the words follow each other 
 in an order determined entirely, or almost entirely, by the 
 sense"; but even in prose "a certain influence of rhythmical 
 
 119 Saran, op. cit., p. 21. " Ibid., p. 19. 
 
 181 Squire, Genetic study of rhythm, 586. 
 
 m Schipper, J., History of English versification, Oxford, 1910, p. 3. 
 
 m Ibid., p. 2. M Schipper, op. cit., p. 4.
 
 38 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 order may be sometimes observable." In Schipper's 
 historical treatment of the various theories with regard to 
 Old English versification several interesting problems are 
 broached, but not fully discussed. Among others is 
 Jessen's theory, 135 developed by his successors, of sub- 
 stituting pauses for "beats not realized." This involves 
 the possibilities of syncopation in connection with metrics, 
 which have been to such a large extent neglected even by 
 those who have sought to put the scanning of verse upon a 
 purely musical basis. 
 
 Schipper, along with Sievers, accepts the two-beat theory 
 for the alliterative line of Old and Middle English, relying 
 partly upon the testimony of Gascoigne and Bishop 
 Percy. 136 According to this view, "the alliterative line 
 obeys only the requirements of free recitation and is built 
 up of two hemistichs which have a rhythmical likeness to 
 one another resulting from the presence in each of two 
 accented syllables, but which need not have, and as 
 a matter of fact very rarely have, complete identity 
 of rhythm." 137 The inconsistency between this view of 
 poetical rhythm in Old English, in which the relations of 
 time are completely subordinated, and his straightforward 
 definition of poetical rhythm, already quoted, in which 
 "the divisions of time" are "symmetrical in their relation 
 to one another" is hard to reconcile. Either the definition 
 is false or Old English poetry has no rhythm. The supposi- 
 tion of Sievers that it was meant to be recited freely and 
 not sung in no way removes the inconsistency. Perhaps 
 the simplest way for Schipper to meet the situation 
 would be to revise his definition of rhythm; otherwise the 
 prestige of the two-beat theory, as a whole, is seriously 
 impaired. 
 
 It would be difficult to attempt a psychological review 
 
 " Schipper, op. tit., p. 17. M Ibid., p. 21. Ibid., p. 24.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 39 
 
 of Saintsbury's contribution to the investigation of prose 
 rhythm, 138 inasmuch as he himself is averse to nothing more 
 than to what he calls "parade of systematic theory." 189 
 His book, in places, suggests hasty composition. In the 
 first note on the first page of his first chapter, the author 
 refers to Isocrates as preceding Aristotle in starting the 
 whole inquiry as to the nature of prose rhythm. Aristotle 
 described prose as "neither possessing metre nor destitute 
 of rhythm." He also advocated the "paeon, or four- 
 syllabled foot, as the base-rhythm." 14 In a note on page 
 2 Isocrates is quoted as saying that prose should be 
 "mingled with all kinds of metres, especially iambic and 
 trochaic." On page 4, however, Dionysius of Halicar- 
 nassus is introduced as having made a "bold advance" 
 upon Aristotle by declaring that "no rhythm whatever is 
 banished from unmetred composition," which can hardly 
 be considered as a bold advance, since it is almost exactly 
 what Isocrates had said at the historical beginning of the 
 discussion. 
 
 Any detailed attempt to discuss the nature of rhythm 
 is absent. In view, moreover, of the long series of scanned 
 examples of well-selected prose passages which he adduces 
 in evidence of the "development" of rhythm in English 
 prose, and describes in his usual pungent and entertaining 
 style, it is surprising to find at the end of his book that he 
 has nothing more to say with regard to the problem with 
 which he started than that "where Variety itself is mistress 
 and queen the moon that governs the waves of prose, as 
 order is the sun that directs the orbit of verse the ear 
 once more is judge." 141 This, apparently, strikes a note of 
 self-confessed defeat. 
 
 u8 Saintsbury, G., A history of English prose rhythm, London, 1912. 
 u Ibid., p. 463. " Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 141 Saintsbury, op. cit., p. 465.
 
 40 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 Rhythmic feeling, as judged by pulse and breath, has 
 been investigated by Drozynski. 142 One of his most 
 important results was that certain rhythms produced a 
 consistently unpleasant effect. 143 A purely iambic rhythm 
 at certain rates of speed produced unpleasant reactions. 
 Series of anapaests frequently produced disagreeable 
 "tension." 144 Contrary to the usual opinion, rhythmic 
 groups consisting of three clashing accents and a single 
 unaccented member were found at certain tempos to have 
 a quieting effect. 145 At other rates of speed they produced 
 displeasure and considerable excitement. The breath was 
 hurried and deepened, and the pulse was shortened. 
 
 Woodrow 146 has studied the r61e of pitch in rhythm. 
 Intensity has a group-beginning effect; duration, a group- 
 ending effect; but pitch has "neither a group-ending nor a 
 group-beginning effect." Simple substitution, therefore, of 
 the factors is impossible. The r61e of kinsesthesis in the 
 perception of rhythm has been significantly treated by 
 Ruchmich. 147 "There is evidence enough, then, that most 
 of the investigators in the field of rhythm conclude that 
 kinaesthesis of one sort or another plays the most promi- 
 nent part in rhythmical perception and in its develop- 
 ment." 148 After quoting Ribot's familiar statement: 149 
 "Thought is a word or an act in a nascent state, that is to 
 say, the beginning of a muscular activity," Ruckmich 
 reviews the more or less recent reaction against this ideo- 
 
 142 Drozynski, L., Atmungs- u. Pulssymt. rhythmischer Gefuhle, Pay. 
 St., VII, 1912. 
 
 " Ibid., p. 110. 144 Ibid., p. 111. 14S Ibid., p. 109, p. 139. 
 
 146 Woodrow, H., The rdle of pitch in rhythm, Psy. Rev., XVIII, 
 1911, p. 77 ff. 
 
 147 Ruckmich, C. A., The rdle of kincesthesis in the perception of 
 rhythm, with a bibliography of rhythm, Am. J. of Psy., 1913, XXIV. 
 
 148 Ibid., p. 311. 
 
 149 Ribot, T., Psychologic de I'attention, Paris, 1889, p. 20.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 41 
 
 motor theory on the part of Thorndike, 160 Titchener, 161 and 
 others. "The assumption of an equivalent between the 
 psychical and the physical is an error into which the 
 investigator is apt to fall if he insists upon too rigid an 
 interpretation of psycho-physical data." 182 As a result of 
 his experiments it was found that, both in the case of 
 sound and of flashes of light presented for rhythmization, 
 kinaesthesis (motor reaction) was essential for the establish- 
 ment of a rhythmical perception. "That perception once 
 established, however, rhythm might be consciously carried, 
 in the absence of any sort of kinaesthesis, by auditory or 
 visual processes." 153 
 
 Weld 1M has made a study of the psychology of musical 
 enjoyment. Most disturbances in the distribution of blood 
 supply recorded during the experiments are found to be 
 due to variations in attention and not to the emotional 
 quality of the music as such. 166 Music quickens the pulse, 
 whether the tempo be fast or slow. Under the influence of 
 music, the chief characteristic of breathing is irregularity; 
 there is no constant correlation between breathing and 
 phrasing. Muscular reactions of all kinds are of great 
 importance in the appreciation of music. Motor responses 
 occur with every auditor, varying from the crude reaction 
 of beating time to the "subtlest play of sheer images of 
 non-executed movements." The complex enjoyment of 
 music is due to timbre and tone, motor response to rhythm, 
 association, play of imagery, pleasure in prediction, and 
 self-projection into the music, pervasive mood, and finally 
 
 uo Thorndike, E. L., Idea-motor action, Psy. Rev., XX, 1913, p. 
 91 ff. 
 
 161 Titchener, E. B., Psychology of feeling and attention, N. Y., 
 1908, p. 309. 
 
 1H Ruckmich, op. cit., p. 313. 1B3 Ibid., p. 359. 
 
 164 Weld, H. P., An experimental study of musical enjoyment, Am. J. 
 of Ps., 1912, XXIII. 
 
 166 Ibid., p. 298.
 
 42 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 intellectual analysis of melody and harmony, as well as of 
 the technique of the performer. Motor imagery is the 
 most important factor for emotional enjoyment; auditory, 
 for intellectual enjoyment. 166 The individual hearers may 
 be classified as analytic, motor, imaginative, and emotional 
 types, with the possibility of shifting, on occasion, from 
 one type to another. 167 
 
 Seashore's preliminary report on the measurement of 
 pitch discrimination 168 is the basis of procedure for Vance's 
 experiments 159 in this direction, some of whose results are 
 significant. The results of previous investigation indicate 
 that the greatest sensitiveness to small differences of pitch 
 lies with tenors and sopranos in the lower half of their 
 voice registers, but with singers of bass and alto parts, as 
 a rule, in the upper half. Vance's observers are not 
 practised singers, but the men surpass the women in 
 discrimination of pitch at every level in the register. 160 
 
 Among the recent, more purely theoretical metricists, 
 may be mentioned Liddell 161 and Thomson. 162 For the 
 former poetry is not a rhythm of sound so much as a 
 "rhythm of ideas," "a flow of attention stresses." 163 In 
 the application of this theory "waves of impulse" figure 
 instead of feet. 164 There are some advantages in .such a 
 point of view, which brings the multiple factors that make 
 up so-called "accent" under the head of a comprehensive 
 mental process rather than under the head of a single 
 
 158 Weld, op. tit., p. 298 ff. 167 Ibid., p. 300 ff. 
 
 U8 Seashore, C. E., The measurement of pitch discrimination: A 
 preliminary report, Psy. Monog., XIII, 1910. 
 
 169 Vance, T. F., Variation in pitch discrimination, Psy. Monog., 
 1914, U. of la. St. in Ps. VI. 
 
 180 Ibid., p. 148. 
 
 181 Liddell, M. H., An introduction to the scientific study of English 
 poetry, etc., N. Y., 1902. 
 
 181 Thomson, W., The basis of English rhythm, Glasgow, 1904-1906. 
 181 Liddell, op. cit., p. 237. M Ibid., p. 304.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 43 
 
 factor of accent such as intensity. Apart from this, 
 Liddell has not as yet worked out his theory in such a way 
 as to satisfy thoroughly those who regard the problem of 
 rhythm as essentially allied to that of music. 
 
 Thomson, for instance, feels this deficiency. 166 All 
 metricists before him who have used musical notation, 
 except Lanier, impress him either as having used it in a 
 "perverted" way or else as possessing a sense of rhythm 
 that is "very peculiar." Lanier is criticized 166 for declaring 
 that rhythm exists in a series of equal consecutive notes 
 before they have been grouped by the addition of accents. 
 The point he has raised is one of the greatest importance. 
 It has been the stumbling-block of almost every student of 
 rhythm who has neglected to investigate the contributions 
 of specific psychological research upon the subject. It is 
 impossible to separate in consciousness a single sound 
 sensation from such a hypothetical ungrouped series without 
 the double process of a focusing and slight unfocusmg of 
 attention, which in itself produces an element of rhythmic 
 alternation. The function of this alternation need not be 
 considered as anything more than what is necessary to 
 produce an impression of " separateness " between the two 
 succeeding pulses or it may be regarded as an element of 
 "contrast," pleasant in itself. In any case, Lanier is right 
 in announcing his impression of rhythm from such an 
 "ungrouped" series, which is ungrouped only in a higher 
 sense, the members of the series being considered as on an 
 approximate level with each other. But it would have 
 been absurdly wrong for him to deny that each member 
 involves in itself, as a sensation, a complex of mental 
 processes in which a certain element of contrast is inevitable. 
 Without this contrast it would be impossible to pass from 
 what we consider one sensation to another. 
 
 Thomson is right in demanding some sort of grouping 
 165 Thomson, op. tit., p. 34. 1M Ibid., p. 26.
 
 44 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 for the rhythmic impression; but he is wrong in excluding 
 from the possibility of such an impression a series of what 
 the writer, in the present treatise, has called "unitary 
 pulses," in which the pulses are "units" only in a relative 
 sense, being hi themselves necessarily subdivided by at least 
 two levels in the general wave-line of attention in order to 
 make their "separateness" possible. These unitary pulses 
 correspond to what Squire 167 has found to be the primary 
 form of rhythm for children, so that it is not surprising 
 that Lanier, although he failed to analyze it properly, 
 should also have felt its "primary" significance. It is 
 hard for the present writer, moreover, to see how certain 
 advanced forms of modern music, such as that of Cyril 
 Scott, can be adequately grasped except upon such a basis. 
 It seems, accordingly, unfortunate that such composers 
 confine themselves or are confined by the demands of their 
 publishers to the conventional arrangements of bars in 
 two, three, four-time, etc. When the music essentially 
 departs from the point of view expressed by the old bar 
 system, it is fatally misleading to the hearer and unfair to 
 the composer to restrict him to a convention that falsifies 
 the facts. The facts seem to be that this type of music is 
 based upon a system of what might be written as unit-beat 
 bars, if bars are written at all, in which the up-and-down 
 feeling of a single pulse, recurring at apparently equal 
 tune-intervals, supplies all the necessary level-changing of 
 sensation to complete the rhythmic impression. But the 
 pulses, as they follow each other, can be regrouped with 
 tremendous freedom (regarding their primary grouping as 
 merely serial), and this is, naturally, what appeals to the 
 so-called "modern" temperament. It remains to be seen, 
 of course, how far such freedom can be extended without a 
 reaction of confusion and consequent unpleasantness for 
 the hearer. 
 
 UT Squire, op. tit., p. 540 ff.
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 45 
 
 As far back as Meumann, 168 theorists such as Lotze have 
 been accused of confusing the conventional schedules of 
 musical notation with music itself the real succession, not 
 of sounds nor even of sound sensations, but of subjective 
 "impressions," with their shifting factors and subtle 
 illusions. It seems all the more strange, however, that 
 Meumann himself and virtually every one else that has 
 followed him should ignore, after all these warnings, the 
 full application to the problem of speech rhythm of what 
 music really is not what it appears to be when trammeled 
 by conventional notation; and should fail to see that the 
 possibilities of acceleration, syncopation, and substitutional 
 equivalence, together with subjective illusion, quite easily 
 cover, for the sound-organizing type of mind, every com- 
 bination of discrete sounds within the ordinary limits of 
 human sensibility and within the time-limits of grouping 
 distance, experimentally established. Accordingly, there is 
 no haphazard series of sounds, within these limits, that 
 cannot be organized by certain minds, when properly 
 attentive, upon a temporal basis. The problem necessarily 
 remains a matter of individual difference. Where auditory 
 and motor imagery is largely absent, where subjective 
 rhythm is weak, where tune-estimation is inaccurate, where 
 the sense of "swing" is blurred and inefficient, where 
 elements in connection with beating time, such as syncopa- 
 tion, are a source of confusion rather than of pleasure and 
 interest, it would seem preposterous to expect an organized 
 response. This might even be the case with the rhythm, 
 divorced from melody and harmony, of such a passage as 
 the selection from Chopin in the present series of experi- 
 ments, which two of the observers, deficient in some of the 
 above respects, after hearing it for the fourth tune, pro- 
 nounced to be haphazard. 
 
 It is only fair, however, in order to disclaim too great an 
 188 Meumann, op. cit., p. 263.
 
 46 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 appearance of novelty in the statements contained in the 
 above paragraph, to complete this brief historical survey 
 with the words of Wundt: "No series of impressions is 
 possible that cannot in some way be comprehended as 
 rhythmic." 1M 
 
 169 Wundt, op. cit., Ill, p. 53.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 
 
 ELASTICITY, that is, acceleration followed by com- 
 pensative retarding, a tightening of speed, as it were, 
 followed by an untightening, is the secret of a measuring 
 scale for rhythmic experience. The "boom! boom! boom!" 
 of subjective tune-units, such as rattle along in the con- 
 sciousness of an aggressively rhythmic person, may be 
 accelerated or retarded, within certain limits defined for 
 each such individual, without destroying their value as a 
 subjective foot-rule with which to correlate all experience. 
 In other words, our temporal inches, to use a spatial 
 metaphor, are merely what we feel to be inches. In the 
 same way, larger groups of time-intervals, marked off by 
 points of subjective tension, varying in stress, may form 
 rhythmic cycles in which elasticity (acceleration and re- 
 tarding), with its accompanying sensations of tightening 
 and untightening, is a distinguishing mark. But this 
 acceleration is likely to be no simple phenomenon. The 
 most complex relations of progressive change of speed are 
 often quite evident in familiar situations. It is easy to 
 multiply examples out of the common occurrences of 
 ordinary life. 
 
 Every child who has felt the cutting joy of that progres- 
 sion of moments, from breathless tip to breathless tip of 
 height, as he clutches the two sides of his rope swing and 
 feels the uncanny instant of poise before the pendulum of 
 which he is a part starts downward to its sweep past the 
 ground-point; every boy who has watched the small gray 
 ball fly from the pitcher's hand to "first," while a runner, 
 
 47
 
 48 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 who continues to over-dare his distance, checks with a 
 swinging turn his forward motion, and for interminable 
 seconds pauses before he can wind up his forces sufficiently 
 to send himself sliding back to base; every man who has 
 staked his fortune on some golden policy, whose repeated 
 success has swept him over the level of stagnation, but 
 irresistibly leads him to the balanced moments, which 
 predestinate a new impetus; for that matter, every gibbon 
 in the African forest, who launches his lithe body fearlessly 
 from tree to tree, and in the last instants of his course, 
 as the momentum of the leap dies out, extends the fingers 
 of his paw just hi time to catch the swaying branch that 
 might have been missed, knows the feeling of elastic 
 rhythmic swing, as complicated in its adjustments, as it is 
 familiar. Every Sargent with his brush and every Mischa 
 Elman with his bow dallies with its secrets. They know 
 it as masters; the rest of us are its slaves it enchants 
 us in art, excites us in our sport and defeats us in the 
 cumulative efficiency of our business competitors. 
 
 To psychology, however, especially in the field of objec- 
 tive measurement, not only rhythmic swing but rhythm 
 in general has figured as a riddle. The disconcerting fact 
 is that, up to the present, no sufficiently detailed study of 
 individual difference in rhythmic experience and perform- 
 ance has been made. What reactions have been studied 
 are chiefly in connection with particular phases of the 
 problem. Bolton, for instance, did not attempt to rank 
 his observers either with regard to sense of swing or ability 
 to perform tasks in syncopation. Seashore, 1 Scripture, 
 Andrews, and others have outlined broader programs, and 
 many investigators have carried out special tests; but no 
 one has felt impelled to undertake a comprehensive series. 
 Around the general subject of rhythm, however, there has 
 
 1 Seashore, C. E., The measurement of musical talent, Mus. Quart., 
 I, 1915, p. 129 ff.
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 49 
 
 developed a voluminous literature, well indicated in the 
 bibliographies of Ruckmich, and very briefly and incom- 
 pletely reviewed in Chapter II of the present volume. 
 
 Of course, as Meumann made clear, 2 there is no one 
 "sense of rhythm," but rather a highly puzzling complex 
 of mental processes, about which few psychologists are 
 agreed. Since the matter is so complicated, the series of 
 brief, rough tests which the present writer has instituted 
 must be taken merely as a beginning in the study of in- 
 dividual difference in this direction. In spite of the fact 
 that each of the twelve observers was examined at fairly 
 long sittings on four or five days, the results of the tests 
 can hardly count for anything but partial indications of 
 what each observer was able to do at a certain time under 
 certain conditions, made as uniform as the general situation 
 permitted. Native ability, as apart from the results of 
 practice, was only dimly ascertained, nor was it easy in 
 so short a time to secure data with regard to possible 
 improvement. 
 
 The questionnaires were intended to help the observers 
 understand what was expected of them and to assist in 
 their "sizing up," rather than to produce material for 
 conclusive argument. The tests for types of mental 
 imagery, pitch memory, intensity memory, etc., were 
 meant to serve no final or accurate purpose. Their value 
 consisted chiefly in making it reasonably plain that certain 
 observers were at least not high, and others not low, in 
 rank. It was thus ascertained that Observer No. 4 was at 
 least not low in his ability to remember the pitch of a 
 particular tone. Observer No. 10 was proved to be at 
 least not high in memory for vowel sounds, and most 
 definitely deficient in accurate auditory imagery. Inas- 
 much as all of these processes are involved in the perception 
 and enjoyment of rhythm, some account had to be taken 
 1 Meumann, op, cit., p. 268.
 
 50 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 of them. Complete and accurate tests, however, were out 
 of the question. It was the same with the measurements 
 made of the normal walking-step, rate of comfortable tap- 
 ping, etc. 
 
 In two respects an effort was made to obtain objective 
 measurements of more accurate significance; in ability to 
 perform, on the one hand, certain syncopating tasks with 
 average precision and steadiness (measured by Gross 
 Constant Error in equaling a standard interval together 
 with the Average Variable Error in attaining this average 
 approximation), and, on the other, certain tasks in repro- 
 ducing a series of six time-intervals, accelerating and 
 retarding according to a fairly simple progression. In 
 order, however, to make these useful as forms of tests to 
 be given in ranking a large number of observers, it was 
 impossible to make them anything but brief. The synco- 
 pation tasks have already been referred to in the introduc- 
 tion and are described in detail, together with the data 
 obtained, in Appendices II and III. The acceleration 
 experiment needs more explanation. 
 
 In view of the extensive literature on rhythm, it is 
 surprising that no experimental psychologist, according to 
 the knowledge of the writer, has brought to an objective 
 issue the "sense of swing." It is not easy to find even 
 among writers on musical aesthetics a penetrating analysis 
 of the relations involved. On the other hand, it is uni- 
 versally conceded that there is nothing in the individual 
 performance of a musical composition or the combined 
 effect of an orchestral production that is so vital to its 
 success as the power to achieve what we consider to be 
 "the psychological moment" for a point of climax. This is 
 at the root of all of our discussions about tempo rubato 
 (stolen time). One of the most recent musicians to express 
 himself upon the latter subject is Saint-Saens, who, in his 
 address at the Pan-American Exposition in 1915, decried
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 51 
 
 the modern misunderstanding and abuse of tempo rubato, 
 and insisted that even in Chopin freedom in time relations 
 can be granted only to the melody. Nevertheless, upon 
 just what principles this freedom in the melody is to be 
 exercised he remains impenetrably vague. It is in such 
 situations that the mysterious "sense of swing" is supposed 
 to officiate. 
 
 But surely the sense of swing means nothing unless it be 
 a sense of progressive movement. When a melody is 
 played in strict, unvarying metronome time, swing is at its 
 lowest, and the "psychological moment" for an accent is 
 merely a matter of remembering that two and two make 
 four. What is usually meant by swing is really "elastic" 
 swing, where the simple mathematical relations are com- 
 plicated for purposes of expression. Compensation figures 
 conspicuously. Time stolen in one place, is repaid in 
 another. What Riemann calls "agogic accent" (the 
 deliberate addition of length to a note, instead of stress, in 
 order to give it prominence) and, of course, tempo rubato 
 (stolen tune), belong to this category; so, though it does 
 not seem to be generally remembered, all effects due to 
 accelerating and retarding the standard tempo. 
 
 No satisfactory grasp, however, can be obtained of the 
 situation until we realize what Wundt maintains, 3 that 
 time-intervals may be considered in terms of velocity. 
 Wundt himself has failed to clarify the final problem of 
 swing, but his insistence on the importance of the idea of 
 velocity (how fast something is going) is the best beginning 
 we could have. Probably those persons who are deficient 
 in motor types of mental imagery will never find a satisfy- 
 ing solution; but to an individual who can easily think of 
 his finger as moving back and forth at various rates of 
 speed, the problem resolves itself quite simply. 
 
 The procedure is as follows: Imagine a series of vertical 
 1 Wundt, op. cit., Ill, passim.
 
 52 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 bars, arranged like the palings on a fence, or the pipes of a 
 steam radiator. Better still, if a radiator is at hand, make 
 actual use of it. First take a stick and draw it across the 
 pipes at right angles to their direction, so that a series of 
 sounds results. If the velocity of the stick is perfectly 
 even, a series of regular time-intervals will be produced 
 by the sounds. Acceleration and retarding (increase and 
 decrease of velocity) are the immediate result of varying 
 the speed of the stick. Now move the stick across the 
 pipes, rather deliberately, with some melody in mind, a 
 sound made by the stick's hitting against a pipe correspond- 
 ing to each note of the melody. If care is taken not to 
 strike the pipes too hard, but to keep the stick, as far as 
 possible, in continuous motion, it will become at once 
 evident that the varying sizes of the time-intervals which 
 produce the rhythmic tune of the melody are the direct 
 result of varying rates of speed in the stick. 
 
 Now review the illustration for a moment: The vertical 
 bars are at equal distances from each other. When the 
 velocity of the stick is even, a series of equal time-intervals 
 are marked off. By varying the velocity of the stick, not 
 only effects of acceleration and retarding are produced, 
 but rhythmic tunes as well. So long as the increase or 
 decrease in speed is more or less gradual, we retain the 
 impression of a regular series becoming faster or slower; 
 as soon as the changes in speed are not only much more 
 marked, but assume the relations of simple proportion to 
 each other (3:1, 1:3, 2:3, 1:6, etc.), the impression of a 
 rhythmic tune becomes possible. 
 
 Any variation in the length of the time-intervals, intro- 
 duced for the purpose of musical expression (this includes 
 "agogic accent," tempo rubato, accelerando, ritardando, etc.), 
 will thus be due to varying rates of speed in the stick, in 
 addition to a similar origin for the rhythmic tune itself. 
 Varying rates of speed, in a broad and general sense, need
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 53 
 
 now to be distinguished from the specific form in which 
 they can appear as "progressive motion," which means 
 nothing more than varying rates of speed in which the 
 variation is roughly spoken of as "gradual," and more 
 accurately as occurring according to some law of progressive 
 increase or decrease. An interval, for instance, of at first 
 one second, is shortened by one tenth of a second, succes- 
 sively, until it becomes three tenths of a second, after 
 which it is lengthened by similar steps until it reaches its 
 former size. This would be a case of rapidly progressing 
 acceleration and retarding. The rate of decrease in the 
 interval, or the rate of increasing velocity in the moving 
 stick, could be expressed by a mathematical equation. 
 Another equation could express the retarding movement. 
 The number of ways in which an interval could become 
 progressively shorter is, of course, infinite. The point to 
 keep clear is that every "gradual" (i.e., not jerky) pro- 
 gression, such as is plainly implied in what we mean by 
 swing, must be subject to some law, instinctively felt, no 
 matter how difficult to phrase. . The "sense of swing," then, 
 would mean the ability to move according to progres- 
 sive laws, however occult, and to feel instinctively in the 
 performances of others the lawful course of their progres- 
 sion, in case they conform themselves to what we mean by 
 "proper swing." The "psychological moment" for an 
 accent, thus, is merely the moment which the progression, 
 as suggested by what has already occurred, seems to 
 demand. A musician ranks, accordingly, as high in thfe 
 respect if he can suggest to us such impelling progressions 
 that we are able in a measure to anticipate the moment for 
 the climax, and rejoice with him in his achieving the final 
 note, without undue delay or hurry. 
 
 The chief reason for recommending the point of view of 
 objective velocity, as illustrated by the equi-distant pipes 
 of the steam radiator across which the stick is drawn, is
 
 54 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 that all our familiar forms of music are likely to involve a 
 moving object, whether it be the bow drawn across a vio- 
 lin or the fingers making the stops, the lips of the singer 
 or the unseen vocal cords or the breathing movements of 
 the body. 
 
 When an observer taps upon a key or a pianist trills, the 
 fingers move through approximately equal distances of 
 space; but, according to their average velocity, the taps 
 or the trills mark off time-intervals of greater or smaller 
 size. So when rhythmic response takes the form of danc- 
 ing, the feet take steps of approximately equal size, but at 
 different rates of speed, according to the music. 
 
 This point of view leads us to a method of testing in- 
 dividual difference in the sense of swing. Suppose that an 
 observer hears a series of six time-intervals produced by rel- 
 atively even, unobtrusive clicks from an electric sounder, and 
 is asked to reproduce the series as accurately as possible 
 by means of tapping with one finger upon an electric key 
 attached to a kymograph, which records his reproduction. 
 At each tap his finger moves through an approximately 
 equal space. Whether it moves evenly or by jerks, its 
 average velocity in covering this space is what determines 
 whether two taps come close together or far apart. If the 
 seven taps he makes, in order to produce six intervals, each 
 cover this space with a certain average velocity, regularly 
 repeated, the six time-intervals will be exactly equal. 
 But, in order to make the experiment a test for swing, the 
 standard six intervals which he is to reproduce are given 
 objectively, according to the following progression in size: 
 .7, .6, .5, .5, .6, .7 sec. In other words, they form an 
 accelerating and retarding series, in which the laws of 
 decrease and increase can be phrased. The proportion, 
 however, between .7 and .6 is not of a sufficiently simple 
 nature for any one to recognize it by ear in such a way 
 that it could be announced in terms of numbers. It would
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 55 
 
 have to be caught and reproduced very largely by instinc- 
 tive processes. 
 
 Each observer is thus rated according to the degree of 
 precision with which he can reproduce this bit of accelera- 
 tion and retarding. Unfortunately for the finality of the 
 results, individuals differ in their ability to perform tapping 
 tasks with ease, so that it is possible for an observer to 
 make a bad record largely on account of his confusion or 
 awkwardness when confronted with the problem of adjust- 
 ing his fingers for a tapped reproduction of a sound impres- 
 sion. For this reason the tapped records were not taken as 
 sufficient in themselves to determine an observer's rank. 
 Sound-photography furnishes in some respects a tremendous 
 improvement in the matter of obtaining more genuine 
 information. In connection with investigating the sense of 
 swing in speech, it seems undoubtedly to be superior to 
 anything else. 
 
 Inasmuch as any consideration of the swing of a series 
 leads to problems which concern the memory processes, 
 most of the tests in this connection were planned to be 
 memory tests (not tests in immediate discrimination). 
 Considerable intervals elapsed, according to schedule, 
 before the observer began his reproduction, even in the 
 tapping records. With the records by sound-photography 
 the following plan was carried out: After the observer has 
 finished his tapping reproductions, and has thus heard the 
 accelerating series twenty-four times, as given by the 
 electric sounder, 4 he is told to listen to it three more times, 
 and accompany it each time, as accurately as he can, by 
 uttering the word "top" for every click of the sounder. 
 Then he is to tap a reproduction of the series, uttering 
 again the word "top" each time that he taps the key. 
 On the second day, when he hears his two "best" tapping 
 records reproduced on the Meumann time-sense machine, 
 4 Appendix II, section vii.
 
 56 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 with a chance to compare them with the original series in 
 both orders (before the standard series and after it), he 
 understands that he is hearing this standard series for the 
 last tune. One week afterward, without any tapping or 
 voice practice between, he is to reproduce the series, as 
 well as he can remember it, by uttering seven "top's" as 
 he stands before the photographing machine. The measure- 
 ment of his intervals is an easy matter, inasmuch as the 
 distortions that occur through the use of diaphragms affect 
 nothing but the relations of stress. By taking the photo- 
 graphs with noiseless apparatus in a virtually sound-proof 
 room, the initial impulse from the word "top" is plainly 
 recorded. 
 
 In Appendices II and III are explained the various meas- 
 urements which are combined in a final grading value, in- 
 tended merely as a convenient way of ranking observers 
 with regard to their ability to catch and to remember and 
 to reproduce, under the conditions of the experiment, the 
 "swing" of the six intervals. What amount of effective 
 swing each of them could produce as musicians, speakers, 
 etc., if left to their own devices, is another matter. A 
 beginning in the direction of this sort of investigation has 
 
 been made with an examination of their various tapping 
 
 * 
 
 versions of the following arrangement of words: "Prose 
 ***** * 
 
 is prose prose is prose prose is prose while poetry 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 is opposed to prose, prose-poetry is opposed to any poetry 
 * 
 
 that may be composed in any other way than that of 
 * 
 
 prose." ' 
 
 It makes very little difference what the processes are by 
 means of which an observer catches the progressive move- 
 ment in question. With some the memory is achieved no 
 doubt very largely by means of memories of judgments, 
 5 The results are listed in Appendix III, section xxv.
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 57 
 
 rather than by carrying in the mind an auditory or motor 
 reproduction of the original series. The chief point to be 
 determined is simply this: Did the observer catch the rate 
 of progression? Would he have been able to predict "the 
 psychological moment" at which the next click was due? 
 If he cannot even approximate the rate, and actually 
 falsifies the general trend of progression that is, remem- 
 bers the acceleration as retardation we may be fairly 
 certain that he is deficient in a sense of swing. If we find 
 him consistently, in various forms of the test (tapping his 
 reproduction, speaking it, drawing it by dividing a line 
 into segments, announcing verbally his judgment, etc.), 
 preserving the relations between the six intervals with a 
 high degree of accuracy, and making no falsifications of 
 general trend, we have very good reason to believe that 
 his sense of swing is, roughly speaking, good. Since, 
 however, we are really dealing with no one "sense," but a 
 complex of processes, we must be careful not to put too 
 definite or high a value upon our results, but weigh them in 
 conjunction with all the other evidence we may be able to 
 obtain. This means that the combination of conditions 
 in this experiment may have been favorable to one indi- 
 vidual at the expense of another, etc. 
 
 What it seems we can attain is a clearer attitude toward 
 the essential elements in swing the perception, enjoy- 
 ment, and institution of progressive movement in the 
 sphere of what we do as well as of what we hear and see. 
 There are some who instinctively catch the modulus of 
 change. They can sniff at an incipient climax and foretaste 
 the end. Consequently, if the singer or violinist to whom 
 they are listening misses his accent, their souls are 
 wrenched. There are some, too, who can follow certain 
 trails but not others. Perhaps it is not so much because of 
 a lack of subtlety of sense as of a lack of interest in the 
 species of game that is being tracked. Observer No. 11
 
 58 
 
 Seconds 
 1.0 
 
 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 .8 
 .7 
 
 .t 
 
 .5 
 
 A 
 .3 
 .2. 
 
 a 
 
 -C 
 ->-> 
 OB 
 
 C 
 
 Intervals 113*54 
 
 FIGURE I. Test for the sense of "swing": Series of six accelerating 
 and retarding intervals, produced by the time-sense machine as a stand- 
 ard for each O (observer) to duplicate by tapping on an electric key. 
 The length of each interval is indicated in the graph by a vertical line.
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 59 
 
 evinces subtlety of perception in the swing of series 
 marked by electric clicks. His personal interests are con- 
 nected with research work in the psychological laboratory, 
 where he is familiar with sounds from recording instruments. 
 According to his own statements, the swing of verse or 
 prose means very little to him; his interest in music is 
 not marked. Quite different is the case of Observer No. 3, 
 who speaks of thrilling from head to foot in response to 
 music, and yet who fails consistently in every test for 
 accurate perception of rhythmic swing. His sense of 
 melody, apparently, is keen, and he ranks high in the test 
 for memory of pitch. Since he enjoys rhythm, in general, 
 it would be wrong to say that he lacks interest in elastic 
 swing. It is simply that his perceptions of correlated 
 time-intervals are inexact. 
 
 Figure 1 represents the swing of the standard series of 
 intervals (.7, .6, .5, .5, .6, .7 sec.), hurrying steadily to a 
 moment of poise and then slowing up to the original pace. 
 Figure 2 shows the attempts of three observers to catch 
 this line of swing and reproduce it by taps on the electric 
 key. 6 Observer No. 1 made a very good reproduction 
 with regard to general trend, precision, arid steadiness. 
 The line in the illustration, which is the result of graphing 
 a recorded performance, shows an elastic sweep fairly close 
 to that of the movement of sounds that was being imitated. 
 Observer No. 10 caught the first part of the movement, but 
 failed to reproduce the moment of poise in the middle, 
 and clearly falsified the swing of the last three intervals. 
 Observer No. 2 very plainly falsified every relation involved 
 in the progression. Instead of a sweeping dip, his line 
 suggests the teeth of a saw. 
 
 ' The attainments of the various observers in reproducing the swing 
 or progressive movement of the six standard accelerating and retard- 
 ing intervals are recorded in the tabulations for general trend, average 
 precision (Gross Constant Error), and steadiness (Average Variable 
 Error), listed in Appendix III, section vii.
 
 60 
 
 Seconds 
 
 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 ....... Ono.l's line of swing 
 
 _ _ __ Ono.l's ' ** > 
 
 _.,_._ Ono.lO's * 
 Standard ' " " 
 
 
 Intervals I 
 
 FIGTJHE II. Test for the sense of "swing" : Graph of the reproduc- 
 tions of three individuals, attempting to catch the "swing" of the 
 standard series of intervals given by the time-sense machine.
 
 THE SENSE OF SWING 61 
 
 Imitative facility, however, is after all merely a partial 
 aspect of the sense of swing. In addition to the ability to 
 reproduce elastic changes of tempo, there is needed a 
 correlation of mental processes capable of preserving in the 
 midst of such progressive movement the impression of a 
 unit of measure; that is, of enjoying the ebb and flow of 
 speed in a series of unitary pulses, without losing alto- 
 gether their fundamental yard-stick value. The subjective 
 yard-stick is necessarily of rubber, but like rubber it has 
 its normal limits of stretch and compression, which can be 
 roughly estimated. If, then, the problem of finding rhythm 
 in prose, as it resolves itself for those aggressively endowed, 
 depends on the conjuring up of rhythmic tunes for appar- 
 ently irregular sequences, and if the processes by means of 
 which such tunes emerge, involve what we term elasticity 
 in the time-units employed, it should be clear that a fair 
 amount of the sense of swing the ability to gauge, to 
 reproduce, and to unify elastic sequences, including not 
 only simple compensative effects of acceleration and 
 retarding, but also "agogic accent" and tempo rubato is 
 one of the set of essential elements in aggressive endowment 
 whose full quota is necessary for the ready summoning of 
 these "tunes" that answer the ancient riddle.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 
 
 "It is the landscape, not of dreams or of fancy, but of places 
 far withdrawn, and hours selected from a thousand with a miracle 
 of finesse." 
 
 THIS sentence from Walter Pater l was chosen as the 
 source of the first of the five series of drum-beats, per- 
 formed by Observer No. 1, and recorded on the phono- 
 graph. 2 A tap was made for each syllable, "hours" being 
 given two taps. When heard by the other observers, who 
 were ignorant of its source, this succession of taps was 
 graded as the "most elusive" of the five sets by some 
 observers, and by others, as second in elusiveness. Since 
 two of the five series thus compared were haphazard 
 arrangements, there is no reason to question the irregularity 
 of the beats of this particular set in spite of any regulating 
 effect that might be due to tapping or other adventitious 
 causes. 
 
 In order to test the validity of Wundt's statement about 
 the possibility of conceiving any succession of impressions 
 as rhythmic, the observers were given a chance to hear 
 the passage eight times altogether. 3 On the first hearing 
 it was graded, together with the other members of the set 
 of five, for relative "elusiveness." On the second hearing 
 the observers were instructed to attempt to beat strict 
 time to each of the set, and record their success; on the 
 
 1 Leonardo da Vinci, from The Renaissance, MacMillan ed., Lond., 
 1914, p. 111. 
 
 1 See Appendix II, section xxvii. 
 ' See Appendix II, sections xxvii, xxix, xxxiv. 
 
 62
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 
 
 63 
 
 third, to keep the possibilities of syncopation in mind and 
 to beat a more elastic unit, accelerating and retarding, 
 again recording their success; on the fourth, to pronounce 
 judgment as to which of the set represented prose, which 
 music, and which purely haphazard arrangements, together 
 with a second grading of each passage for "elusiveness." 
 As a result of this, Observer No. 12, who on the first 
 hearing had graded the Pater series as the most elusive, 
 now judges it to be regularly musical. Observer No. 7, 
 who had graded it as next to the most elusive, also pro- 
 nounces it now to be regularly musical. 
 
 Schedule I: 
 
 accel. 
 
 rit. 
 
 accel. 
 
 rit. 
 
 2 
 
 -i 
 
 . a - 
 
 i 
 
 A M 
 
 
 
 
 A 3 
 
 A . 
 
 
 a 
 
 q j tr 
 
 H 
 
 5 
 
 = 
 
 
 a 
 
 Ed ' 
 
 1 =' 
 
 == 
 
 c 
 
 J 
 
 B 
 
 Schedule II: 
 
 oece/. 
 
 i/^|g ^'fcri^- 1 
 
 2 
 ^ .8 
 
 occeZ. 
 
 A . - A 
 
 ^ 
 
 PTT 
 
 a a 
 
 FIQTJKE 1. Rhythmic Schedules used in connection with the sentence 
 from Walter Pater 
 
 After the fourth hearing the Pater series was heard 
 independently of the others. Accordingly, on the fifth 
 hearing of it the observers reported upon their affective re-
 
 64 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 action to it at this stage of repetition. On the sixth and 
 seventh, schedules were introduced (see Figure 1). These 
 were simply records of two ways of subjectively organizing 
 the beats as evolved by the experimenter after repeated 
 hearings. 
 
 In the majority of cases, the observers received most 
 assistance from the schedules, when the experimenter, 
 before the actual hearing of the beats from the phonograph, 
 not only tapped off the schedule on the phosphor-bronze 
 drum, but hummed a simple tune (purely fictitious), 
 suggested by the rhythm as indicated in the notation. In 
 this way, observers who had failed to organize the series 
 by themselves, found various degrees of satisfaction in 
 applying to the beats the schemes of organization indicated 
 in the two schedules. It must be remembered, however, 
 that Observer No. 7 pronounced all the five series, including 
 the two purely haphazard arrangements, to be thoroughly 
 musical in their impression before he had seen the schedules. 
 Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that these schedules 
 are merely two of the many ways in which the experi- 
 menter might subjectively organize the passage in question. 
 They happen to fall readily into elastic three-time, or a 
 combination of three and two-time. Among such possible 
 forms of organization, those that in his case have occurred 
 most frequently are based, not upon a unit grouped in 
 two's or three's, but upon unitary pulses, syncopating 
 freely with the impressions of accent in the actual prose. 
 
 Unless the explanations already made in previous chap- 
 ters about syncopations and spontaneous substitution are 
 thoroughly understood, any statement about unitary 
 pulses and their function will be misleading. Taking for 
 granted, however, that this understanding has been at- 
 tained, the following is an attempt to make clear the usual 
 form of rhythmic experience felt by the writer: To begin 
 with, there is always implicated in the complex of his
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 65 
 
 mental processes, either plainly evident or susceptible of 
 easy evocation, a subjective time-unit, sometimes affected 
 by heart-rate, but, as a rule, corresponding apparently to 
 his average walking-step (a little over .7 sec.), and, like 
 any walking-step, capable of accelerating and retarding. 
 These unitary (ungrouped) time-intervals are marked off by 
 a series of what appear to be muscular tensions in the 
 region of the head, sometimes localized in the neighborhood 
 of the ears (musculus tensor tympani), sometimes in the 
 throat, or elsewhere. These tensions sometimes, but not 
 always, coincide with concomitant heart-beats. In spite of 
 the elastic nature of the intervals thus formed, they occa- 
 sionally remain more or less regular, and thus serve as a 
 standard for gauging the varying rate of the pulse, when 
 the latter is felt. After the pulse has been felt conspicu- 
 ously, however, the unitary intervals seem to be affected by 
 its rate and tend to coincide. Apparently the memory of 
 the normal walking-rate persists in its influence more than 
 the memory of the normal heart-rate, which is about .9 
 sec. in the present case. Perhaps, as each step is taken, the 
 concomitant tension of some obscure muscle of the head 
 occurs, which thus furnishes the means of repeating the 
 walking-rate, without carrying the innervation as far as the 
 legs. Breath-rate does not seem to affect these inner 
 pulses so much as the pulses, or their multiples, affect 
 breath-rate; that is, the breathing muscles sometimes have 
 a tendency to reserve their action at the moment of initiat- 
 ing inhalation or exhalation, in order to fall in with the 
 phase of a unitary pulse. Usually, however, the relation 
 of the two is one of free syncopation rather than coinci- 
 dence. When attention rests upon this automatic syncopa- 
 tion by means of which breathing and the time-pulses are 
 so easily coordinated, a feeling of distinct pleasure results, 
 quite parallel to what occurs in the hearing of prose. The 
 measurement of spontaneous tapping at a comfortable rate
 
 66 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 showed that the writer's tapping approximated twice his 
 walking-rate. In Appendix III, section x, several observers 
 show similar correlations between various rates of comfort- 
 able movement. For Observer No. 1, for example, tap and 
 sway rates, as measured, were identical, and approximately 
 twice the walking-rate. 
 
 In the present instance, this series of elastic unitary 
 pulses usually announces its presence at once on the appear- 
 ance of objective auditory stimuli, sufficient in number to 
 suggest serial grouping. What follows is a slight adjust- 
 ment of the rate of the pulses (when the stimuli are 
 produced by another), and a mutual adjustment of the 
 pulses and the articulatory movement (when the stimuli 
 are produced by the writer himself, as in reading aloud 
 the sentence from Walter Pater). This adjustment occurs 
 by means of instinctive processes, and, unless a repeated 
 pattern of time and stress obtrudes itself, results, not in a 
 predominance of coincidence, but rather in various forms of 
 syncopating and substitutional relation such as appear in 
 the course of regular music for instance, the sonatas of 
 Beethoven, or the "Scenes from Childhood" by Schumann. 
 
 What thus develops within the compass of the first few 
 syllables continues throughout the sentence. Suggestions, 
 however, stream rapidly into consciousness from the first 
 grasp of the meaning and tone-color of the opening words 
 (together with the perception that the sentence is arranged 
 as prose), which suggestions influence appreciably the rate 
 of the unitary pulses, and, in the case of the experimenter's 
 own reading, the rate of the uttered syllables, as well as 
 the form of syncopating adjustment. The instinctive 
 desire for a maximum of ease, spontaneity (freedom from 
 an artificial pattern), and appropriateness, joins these 
 suggestions derived from thought, mood, and tone-color. 
 Had the first impressions (whether derived from lines and 
 stanzas visible to the reader, or from evidence of metrical
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 67 
 
 pattern in the rendering of another) suggested that the 
 arrangement was intended as verse, memory and habit 
 would at once enter as factors in assisting consciousness to 
 pounce upon the pattern as quickly as possible, and adjust 
 the pulses (which would now be likely to group themselves 
 into two's or three's) to more or less coincidence with the 
 accents of the metre. The reason, however, for such 
 adjustment would be nothing more abstruse than that it 
 is the easiest thing to do. In the case of a rendering of 
 verse by another person, the pulses would probably be 
 suppressed, as soon as an adjustment between their rate 
 and the rate of the speaker proved uncomfortable. But in 
 case of prose where patterns do not obtrude, the elastic 
 possibilities of acceleration, together with those of syncopa- 
 tion and substitution, open loop-holes of escape in every 
 direction. Only where the prose rendering is obviously 
 too schematic, rather than perfectly spontaneous, does the 
 problem of adjusting the heard syllables instinctively to the 
 under-units become anything but a refreshing task. 
 
 After this explanation, the following purely chance type 
 of rhythmic experience on the part of the writer, in reading 
 aloud the sentence of Pater, may assist in making plain the 
 procedure of a "timer" in organizing prose. A glance at 
 the text gives the assurance that the words are at least 
 arranged in a normal, straightforward fashion. There are 
 no inversions, and no obvious stress-pattern presents 
 itself. "It is the landscape, not of dreams or of fancy," is 
 about as much as the mind at first comprehends with 
 regard to thought, mood, and tone-color. A degree of 
 pensiveness and the consequent appropriateness of a 
 moderate tempo suggest themselves at once. The unitary 
 pulses of subjective tune begin to obtrude before the actual 
 uttering of any of the words of the sentence. Their rate 
 is about .7 sec., or less, we shall say, being quickened 
 probably by the consciousness of an approaching problem,
 
 68 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 through suggestions derived from accelerating heart-beats 
 and breathing, part of the phenomena accompanying 
 mental work. The voice begins, just after one of the 
 pulses (i.e., syncopating), and utters the words "It is the" 
 during the unit-interval. At the syllable "land," the voice 
 and the subjective time-beat coincide. The next pulse 
 registers its subjective tap, not on the accented part of the 
 word "dreams" but on the humming "m" sound at the end. 
 In this way "dre" is registered, in the combined impression, 
 as preceding the pulse by a definitely appreciated time- 
 interval. The fact, however, that the unit pulse falls on 
 the "m" sound, in no way distorts the usual accentuation 
 of the word. This phenomenon is at once understood by 
 every musician. It is a simple case of syncopation. The 
 fact, in this particular case, that the beat did not coincide 
 with "dre" is due, apparently, to some suggestion in the 
 context or perhaps merely to some spontaneous articulatory 
 tendency, which hurried the enunciation of the word. 
 The satisfying effect of such syncopation, when once 
 recognized, is nothing more occult than what occurs in 
 every bit of genuine rag-time. When talked about too 
 much it easily assumes the guise of unpenetrable mys- 
 tery. 
 
 In the same way, the next pulse does not coincide with 
 the orally accented part of "fancy" but falls upon the last 
 syllable another case of syncopation due to an uncon- 
 strained rendering. In the case of a person's not making 
 these temporal correlations easily and spontaneously, a 
 forced attempt to "beat time" would undoubtedly lead, 
 unless otherwise directed, to a deliberate hurrying or slowing 
 up of words in order to form coincidences with the accom- 
 panying units. This is a complete negation of the spirit of 
 prose, and even in verse produces mechanical renderings, 
 when the unit-series itself is maintained without a certain 
 free play of elasticity (accelerando and ritardando') , and
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 69 
 
 without a definite, though subordinated, amount of synco- 
 pation. 
 
 The combined rhythmical experience of the syllabic 
 impressions and the under-units of time, in the present 
 instance, is as follows : 
 
 "It is the landscape, not of dreams or of fancy, but of 
 # * * * 
 
 places far withdrawn, and hours selected from a thousand 
 * * * * 
 
 with a miracle of finesse." 
 * * 
 
 We shall call this, "rhythmic experience x." The rela- 
 tive occurrence of unitary pulses is indicated by asterisks 
 placed just underneath the sounds or pauses which they 
 accompany. Reproduce by tapping off the pulses at approxi- 
 mately equal intervals, taking care that the predominantly 
 syncopating relation between the pulses and the chief accents 
 of the text is preserved. 
 
 f~~ The impression which results from the combination in 
 consciousness of the auditory (syllabic) sensations (includ- 
 ing their effect upon attention) and the subjective time-units, 
 may be compared to a melody and its accompaniment, 
 with attention focussed, not upon the pitch relations so 
 much as upon the relations of time and stress. This is 
 what occurs when the rhythm of a melody is tapped upon a 
 drum. "Drum-beat tunes" and "rhythmic tunes" are 
 merely phrases, no doubt quite old, for such a performance. 
 "Tune" in both cases not only suggests an auditory 
 sequence, temporally and accentually organized, but brings 
 to mind two interesting facts first, that even in a succes- 
 sion of noises, impressions of definite pitch are likely to 
 occur; second, that even in a succession of notes of unvary- 
 ing pitch, fictitious melodies, of definite tonal structure, are 
 easily added subjectively by some observers. 
 
 The drum-beat tune, in its function of assistance in 
 organizing irregular sequences, must be kept exactly where 
 it belongs as a step of great importance, but, after all,
 
 70 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 nothing more than a step. The final impression of rhythm 
 derived from a sentence is, to a large extent, a fusion of 
 elements, in which actual pitch, tone-color, thought, mood, 
 capricious or logical attention, etc., enter as factors in 
 addition to duration, stress, and the dim element of pitch, 
 actual or purely subjective, implicated in the drum-beat 
 tune. Of course, one of the chief virtues of objectively 
 tapping a drum-beat tune, or of reproducing in some 
 outward motor form the series of subjective units, is that 
 the overt motor performance is a help to confirming and 
 defining the rhythmic experience. 
 
 Reverting to the sentence from Pater, and the particular 
 rhythmic experience which is being discussed (rhythmic 
 experience x), we should state that the series of under- 
 units, spontaneously evoked at the first signal for the 
 mental and motor task of reading the sentence aloud, loses 
 its obtrusiveness very quickly, so that the result, segregated 
 as a rhythmic experience (apart from the mere understand- 
 ing and enjoyment of the meaning of the sentence) can be 
 described only by some such phrase as the "rhythmic 
 tune" of the rendering. This implies more or less of a 
 fusion of the two elements furnished by the motor and 
 auditory sensations connected with the words, on the one 
 hand, and the pulses of subjective time on the other. It is 
 just what happens when we whistle a melody, keeping 
 satisfactory time (largely by means of automatic processes) 
 without realizing the system of units we happen to be using. 
 
 The particular "tune" attained by rhythmic experience 
 x could be roughly written in musical notation with two 
 staves: one for the "melody," or series of beats (subjective 
 impressions of syllables), accented in various ways, pro- 
 duced by the actual words; the other for the accompani- 
 ment, or series of unitary pulses. The only chance for 
 misunderstanding would be over the matter of spontaneous 
 substitution, which enters into every step of the progres-
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 71 
 
 sion. If this is once understood, syncopation (which may 
 be regarded as an aspect of substitution) presents no great 
 difficulties. Spontaneous substitution, as explained before, 
 means here simply: first, that when two sets of time- 
 intervals are occurring concomitantly, one a unit-series and 
 the other a more complicated arrangement (to be coordi- 
 nated with these units and then organized), the unit- 
 intervals, in their successive occurrence, establish the 
 fundamental continuous experience of rhythm; second, 
 that this experience is not disturbed, but rather made more 
 interesting by the fact that any one of the units can be 
 accompanied by two, three, four, etc. subdivisions of a 
 unit-interval, produced by the beats of the more com- 
 plicated series. 
 
 If the series of elastic unitary pulses is thus conceived as 
 an ungrouped succession of "boom's," the objective, more 
 complicated series may be conceived at first as a haphazard 
 arrangement of "bim's." Coordination is accomplished by 
 means of the principle of spontaneous substitution, in 
 which case the unit series continues as "boom! boom! 
 boom!", while the objective series is felt to consist of 
 substitutions (without premeditated pattern) of two 
 "bim's," three "bim's," etc., to a single "boom." So, 
 also, one "bim" may be prolonged sufficiently to cover the 
 time occupied by several "boom's." When to these 
 possibilities we add the possibility of suppressing any 
 number of "bim's" in a group, let us say of three or five, 
 and instituting in its place some subjective point of tension, 
 marked by kinaesthesis or imagery, we have introduced the 
 principle of syncopation. By substitution a "boom" is 
 first accompanied, let us assume, by three "bim's"; by 
 another form of substitution, which we call syncopation, 
 the first and second "bim's" are suppressed, and subjective 
 points of tension "felt" in their place. A silence thus 
 accompanies the beginning of the "boom," but two thirds
 
 72 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 of the way across the interval a short "him" sounds. 
 To a mind to which syncopation is an easy task, the 
 occurrence of a "him" four fifths of the way across a unit- 
 interval at once evokes an illusion of the interval's having 
 been divided from the beginning into five. By this is 
 meant, not that the number five comes actually into con- 
 sciousness, but that there is instituted (for how long it is 
 impossible to say) a second temporary series, of small 
 pulses, each equal to the short interval just perceived. 
 At every new substitution of three's, four's, etc., or the 
 suggestion of such substitution by the sudden introduction 
 of an interval shorter than the fundamental "boom," the 
 mental processes instinctively readjust themselves to the 
 momentary form of coordination, without losing the uni- 
 fying influence of the basic "boom's." It is a signal 
 case of unity regulating multiplicity. The current belief 
 that prose rhythm has no rule but variety is thus shown to 
 be unfounded so far as rhythmic experience x is concerned. 
 Any one who wishes to see the principles above described 
 strikingly applied in terms of the notation of regular music, 
 should examine the first page of "The Temple of Mem- 
 phis," composed for the piano by Cyril Scott. The passage 
 containing the most noticeable series of unitary pulses in 
 the bass, accompanied by the spontaneous substitution of 
 two's, three's, etc., in the treble, begins with the fifth bar. 
 Broader groupings of the unitary pulses into clusters of 
 three, five, four, three, are indicated lower down on the 
 page by the figures at the beginning of each bar. The 
 recent recitals of East Indian music given in New York by 
 Ratan Devi furnish signal examples of objective unitary 
 pulses, played as an instrumental accompaniment to the 
 syncopating words of the songs. But, for that matter, the 
 "Scenes from Childhood" by Schumann, in which such 
 familiar melodies as "Traumerei" occur, contain excellent 
 examples.
 
 RHYTHMIC TUNES 73 
 
 The testimony of the data recorded in Appendix III, 
 section xxxiv, leaves little doubt that rhythmic experience 
 x, in so far as it is based upon unitary pulses, syncopation 
 and substitution, is the sort of experience felt by Observer 
 No. 7 (see Appendix III, section xxvii) when he subjectively 
 organized all five of the phonograph records and pro- 
 nounced them regular music. It would be a mistake of 
 the gravest nature to confuse rhythmic experience x, based 
 upon unitary pulses, with the type of musical experience 
 resulting from the hearing of a Strauss waltz. But it 
 would be very difficult to distinguish the sort of rhythmic 
 tune it suggests (when this is quite divorced of voice-pitch, 
 tone-color, thought, mood, etc.) from a similar rhythmic 
 tune obtained from a rendering of such music as Cyril 
 Scott's, or from Ratan Devi's singing, or from so thoroughly 
 beloved a melody as "Traumerei." 
 
 Any objections to the use of Cyril Scott's music, as 
 probably unpleasing in its rhythm, are completely nullified 
 by the data recorded in Appendix III, section xxxi, where 
 eight out of the twelve observers, although in some cases 
 puzzled by the first hearing of the rhythmic tune as beaten 
 on the drum, reported interest and pleasure on the second 
 hearing. Their possible experience with regard to the 
 melody and harmony of this music would be quite another 
 point. Its rhythmic suggestions, however, contain enough 
 of primeval tom-tom hypnotism to appeal even to those 
 of us who are still savages. The same is true of the sen- 
 tence of Walter Pater, regardless of the rather sophisticated 
 rustle underneath which its beats are veiled.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 VERS LIBRE 
 
 SINCE the distinction between prose and verse experience 
 is of vital significance in the present investigation, certain 
 claims must be considered, which have been advanced by 
 the writers of vers libre, some of whom imply that what 
 they write is merely an amplified, "freer" kind of verse, 
 others that they are expressing themselves through a 
 distinctive medium, which is neither prose nor verse, in 
 the old acceptation of the term. From the point of view 
 of the "timer," who can be brought to a clear realization 
 of the difference between typical prose and verse experience, 
 and who, consequently, need not feel any undue terrors 
 with regard to the supposed " elusiveness " of the problem, 
 these claims of the writers of vers libre are easily examined. 
 There is no reason why a picture of the situation should not 
 be painted in black and white. 
 
 Once more we must focus our attention, not upon paper 
 theories, but upon actual experiment. From this point of 
 view, typical prose is uttered language which, on a given 
 occasion, produces a series of syllabic impressions, whose 
 temporal arrangement is largely irregular, that is, hap- 
 hazard, but which can be subjectively organized by an 
 aggressive "timer." A spontaneous or automatic process 
 of syncopation between the syllabic sounds and subjective 
 unitary pulses secures satisfactory coordination, in the same 
 way that a negro automatically improvises complicated syn- 
 copating melodies while he plies his hoe in the corn-field. 1 
 
 1 The definition of prose as distinguished from verse experience, 
 for a timer, depends upon a predominance of syncopation over coin- 
 cidence in the coordination of the accented syllables of the text with 
 the measuring pulses. See the following paragraph. 
 
 74
 
 VERS LIBRE 75 
 
 Felicity of phrase and vividness of imagery, which give 
 emotional value to a poem through a complex of suggestions 
 and associations, must be removed from the discussion 
 except in so far as they involve time-patterns and stress- 
 patterns, the two factors which most immediately con- 
 cern us. Taking well-defined prose experience to be due 
 to a predominance of syncopation in the relation between a 
 "timer's" elastic measuring pulses and the syllables in 
 which we feel impressions of accent, and regarding verse 
 experience as due to a predominance of coincidence in this 
 relation, we first of all conceive the rhythm of either prose 
 or verse in the form of a rhythmic tune, combining patterns 
 of time, stress, and, to some extent, pitch. Patterns of 
 tone-color are superimposed, as soon as we consider the 
 actual sounds of the words, and patterns of subjective 
 weight, as soon as we consider the words as vehicles of 
 thought and feeling, in addition to their auditory impression. 
 
 Patterns, not of stress as actually uttered, but as in- 
 dicated by grammatical (dictionary) accent, have a great 
 influence upon the person who utters a printed passage, in 
 suggesting to him whether to speak the words as prose or 
 verse. Here is where the absence of a series of similar 
 grammatical stress-patterns is of importance in instituting 
 the typical prose attitude. When once this prose attitude 
 is instituted, it is quite evident in the delivery of a "timer" 
 that he is uttering his accented syllables in a comfortably 
 irregular fashion comfortably, because his ability to 
 organize subjectively such irregularities completes for him, 
 by means of syncopation, the easiest rhythmic experience 
 that can be evoked by such conditions. If, however, the 
 grammatical stresses, as noticed in the particular text, 
 arrange themselves obviously in a repeated pattern, he 
 receives his cue therefrom, and utters the passage in 
 question in harmony with his instinctive feeling that the 
 predominating coincidence between accents and tinie-pulses
 
 76 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 is the easiest process whenever a sequence of some one 
 stress-pattern is involved. Thus, both in the case of prose 
 and verse, he follows automatically the line of least resistance. 
 So much for the person who reads aloud from a printed 
 text. The hearer, on the other hand, receives his sugges- 
 tions no longer from mere dictionary accent, which is 
 easily obliterated in rapid delivery, but from the particular 
 rendering of the one who utters the words. If he detects 
 in this rendering a sequence of some actual stress-pattern 
 matched by evident ease in adapting his inner pulses to the 
 accents in a form of coordination in which coincidence pre- 
 dominates, he, too, follows the line of least resistance, and 
 considers the words he hears to be verse. Naturally he 
 does not bother his mind as to how he enjoys it, provided 
 he actually does enjoy it. If either the hearer or the one 
 who is reading aloud is enjoying a passage in the typical 
 temporal attitude associated with prose and suddenly be- 
 gins to feel pulling at his elbow hints of repeated patterns, 
 whose regular sequence makes coincidence the easiest form 
 of coordination, he may find himself out of the formal 
 sphere of prose and, momentarily, at least, in that of verse. 
 Whether he enjoys this shift or not is a matter of individual 
 difference. There are some who resent it bitterly, just as 
 there are others who may aver that they enjoy such chang- 
 ing back and forth. 
 
 One continuous text, then, may lead to the two types of 
 experience, and passages may easily occur in which the 
 suggestions of pattern may be balanced by suggestions of 
 the absence of pattern. One person, too, might interpret 
 the passage as verse-like, another as quite the opposite. 
 Right here is where the chance for a tremendous fallacy 
 occurs. The confused state of mind with regard to the 
 general trend of the movement, that is, as to whether it is 
 prose or verse, must not lead us into concluding that a 
 distinct aesthetic experience has been produced essentially
 
 VERS LIBRE 77 
 
 different from that of prose or of regular verse. There are 
 only two ways in which a series of measuring time-units 
 can be coordinated with a second series of sensations 
 syncopation and coincidence. Either syncopation pre- 
 dominates, in which instance we feel the stimulus as prose, 
 or coincidence predominates, and verse experience ensues. 
 What room is there for a tertium quid? Nothing remains 
 but the purely hypothetical case where syncopation and 
 coincidence are exactly balanced in their occurrence, or 
 else a mere confusion of mind in which temporal coordina- 
 tion practically ceases, that is, in which rhythm, so far as 
 the "tuner" is concerned, has been abrogated. Wallin's 
 experiments at Yale have shown how easily passages of 
 verse, such as that of Tennyson or Browning, might be 
 read as prose if so arranged. But there exists no actual 
 arrangement of lines or of stress-groups in the words 
 themselves which is capable of leading us invariably into a 
 perfect balance between syncopation and coincidence. 
 Accordingly, there exists no fundamental time-rhythm experi- 
 ence corresponding to a tertium quid between prose and 
 regular verse. What actually happens in the hearing or 
 utterance either of vers libre or of certain forms of so-called 
 "rhythmic prose" is that during one phrase or group of 
 phrases the aggressive "timer" feels syncopating temporal 
 experiences, during the next phrase or group he begins to 
 feel coincidence of the accents with his subjective measuring 
 pulses. The more vague impressions of the "stresser" are 
 significant in the study of individual difference, but hardly 
 illuminating with regard to the distinctive experience of 
 rhythm because of his overly blurred sense of time-values. 
 According to the results of our experiments, therefore, 
 there is no psychological meaning to the claims for a third 
 genre between regular verse and prose, except in the sense 
 of a jumping back and forth from one side of the fence to 
 the other. In spite of the fact, then, that many passages
 
 78 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 can be felt as either prose or verse, according to the utter- 
 ance or the amount of "suggestion" received through 
 visual arrangement, grammatical (dictionary) accent, arti- 
 fices of tone-color, figures of speech, elevated diction, etc., 
 nothing more than an unstable compound can be created 
 out of the two typical forms of temporal experience. 
 
 So far as broader grouping is concerned, prose is capable 
 of all the subtleties of occult balance ever evinced in 
 verse. 2 If the champions of vers libre were to stick to an 
 obvious balance in broader groupings, with an avoidance of 
 any regular succession of small group-patterns, such as 
 iambs, trochees, anapaests, etc., they would have a more 
 consistent form, similar, as a whole, to neither regular 
 prose nor regular verse. It would produce symmetrically 
 arranged stretches of prose experience, in which free 
 syncopation, however, would probably be checked to a 
 large extent by the suggested see-saw of broader arrange- 
 ment. Such a form exists in some of the Psalm transla- 
 tions. The writers of vers libre, however, appear to have 
 no intention of thus curbing their freedom. So, of course 
 the constant jerking back and forth from prose to verse 
 may continue to produce pleasurable reactions in enough 
 individuals to confirm the operation as a fairly usual, 
 though surprising, combination of mental processes. All 
 that psychology has a right to question is the distinctive 
 unified reaction claimed for what is really an alternation 
 of two contrasting forms of experience. 
 
 Irregular length of line and the absence of rhyme have 
 always been features of certain types of verse, avoided 
 by some poets, cultivated by others. Particularly with 
 
 1 This secondary grouping may be symmetrical or unsymmetrical. 
 Either verse or prose experience may thus be colored by the form of 
 grouping superimposed. Verse experience, unsymmetrically grouped, 
 and prose experience, symmetrically grouped, would be the more 
 unusual and, without doubt, the more unstable varieties.
 
 VERS LIBRE 79 
 
 respect to irregular length of line, whether measured by 
 stress-patterns of grammatical accent or merely by number 
 of chief accents, there will continue to be chances for more 
 and more "freedom" until the mathematical limit of 
 permutation and combination for unusually long and unu- 
 sually short lines has been reached. The idea, therefore, 
 that certain individual forms of vers libre are merely 
 amplifications of accepted types of conventional verse is 
 thoroughly justified. But quite apart from irregular length 
 of line, the arrangement of grammatical accent in the 
 printed text of the poems of Masters, for instance, produces 
 frequently, by the force of suggestion, an assortment of 
 thoroughly good prose experiences sandwiched in between 
 patches of equally good verse. This is hardly a mere 
 amplification of accepted types of verse, since the broader 
 interchange between verse and prose to be found in Shake- 
 speare and the Elizabethan drama is frankly according to 
 the facts a matter not of some new verse form, but a 
 confessed mosaic of verse and prose. On the other hand, 
 it must be admitted that the masquerading of prose plus 
 verse under the name of either experience is far older than 
 the nineteenth century. In fact, it has its counterpart in 
 Sanskrit forms. The Sanskrit rhetoricians are quite unable 
 to straighten out for us a final classification of certain 
 examples in the "Gadya" style, where the "perfume of 
 metre" is supposed to be attained without its presence, in 
 spite of which theoretical restriction the actual metrical 
 "pada's" are repeatedly interpolated. 3 
 
 Even in its most recent developments, particularly in 
 France, the mosaic form has appeared sometimes under the 
 name of prose, sometimes under that of verse. In either 
 case, it must be recognized that whenever so-called vers 
 libre goes beyond mere irregularity of length of line, and 
 alternates successions of repeated stress-patterns with 
 
 1 Regnaud, P., La Rhttorique sanskrite, Paris, 1884, pp. 74 ff.
 
 80 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 stretches where the grammatical accent is sufficiently 
 irregular to suggest a syncopating rhythmic response, there 
 results for the "tuner" a patch-work product, involving two 
 processes which psychologically do not fuse. 
 
 In conclusion, we may say that the recent American 
 poets who employ "free verse" give us many effective and 
 welcome phrasings of their realistic view of life. Their 
 independence as to form is occasionally stimulating. With 
 regard to subtle cadence, however, which has been claimed 
 as the chief distinction of these poets, it is still a question 
 as to how far they have surpassed the refinement of balance 
 that quickens the prose of Walter Pater. 
 
 A word, finally, must be added as to terminology. When 
 regular prose becomes consistently emotional, whether 
 through richness of tone-color, abundance of images, or 
 conspicuous "return" of certain prose refrains, such as we 
 find in Matthew Arnold's repetition of "sweetness and 
 light" or De Quincey's "Fanny and the rose in June," all 
 we need is to space the phrases on separate lines in order to 
 obtain something which is not to be distinguished from the 
 best "free verse." This resulting experience is different 
 from that obtained from ordinary prose in that the spacing 
 serves to focus our attention upon the rhythm as rhythm] 4 
 but, in spite of this self-consciousness and its emotional 
 consequences, our "glorified" prose still remains a kind of 
 prose. What shall we call it? Since all prose has its rhyth- 
 mic possibilities, "rhythmic prose" is as misleading a name 
 as vers libre. Rhythmically self-conscious "spaced prose" 
 is an uninviting but fairly accurate description of it in its 
 more inspired manifestations, such as abound in the work 
 of Miss Amy Lowell. Nevertheless, until the various expo- 
 nents of vers libre strike Miss Lowell's more consistent pace, 
 it is useless to devise names for what, at present, seems to 
 be a shifting entity. 
 
 4 Rhythm in the sense of "secondary, broader rhythm." See p. 98.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 THERE is little that is permanently elusive about the 
 rhythm of prose to an aggressively rhythmic person. The 
 temporal part of his experience, at any rate, is clear-cut 
 enough for musical transcription, provided we adopt a 
 system of accelerating and retarding unitary pulses as a 
 basis, and understand the phenomena of syncopation and 
 spontaneous substitution. To a passively rhythmic person, 
 however, whose time-sense is noticeably deficient, prose 
 rhythm, as an experience, will never possess anything but 
 an elusive aspect. The subtle pleasure he may elicit from 
 a careful choice of words with regard to tone-color, shades 
 of mood and thought, etc., can easily deceive him into 
 calling his experience "rhythmic," when actually it is 
 something else. The "stresser" imagines that he can 
 correctly gauge a "movement" when he is merely gauging 
 a permutation or combination of stresses and unstressed 
 syllables. The so-called "word painter" mistakes for 
 rhythmic sense his skill in vowel and consonant color; the 
 "phraser," his gift in balancing against each other colloca- 
 tions of words, in which association of thought is the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic. Such a "phraser" may have 
 skill in duplicating the style of some well-known prose 
 author, including, inadvertently, the possibilities of rhythm; 
 and yet in so doing, he may have made use of processes 
 quite distinct from those primarily connected with rhythmic 
 experience. It would be absurd to maintain that without 
 a discriminative sense of time there can be any real valua- 
 tion of movement. 
 
 81
 
 82 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 Many of the stresser's errors are avoided if we keep 
 before our minds the difference between body-rhythm and 
 static body-balance. The schoolboy, standing erect with 
 heels together, ready for calisthenic drill, exemplifies 
 symmetrical body-balance. The Indian, poised for an 
 instant upon one foot, as he climbs the rocks, illustrates 
 the balance of an apparently unsymmetrical or "occult" 
 nature. 1 But let the schoolboy begin to move his arms in 
 time to music, his motions coinciding with the temporal 
 pulses of a tune, and rhythmic experience results, similar 
 to that which we associate with verse. So let the Indian 
 resume his actual climbing of the rocks, and the coordinated 
 movements he makes, although occurring at objectively 
 irregular intervals, are subjectively organized by an aggres- 
 sively rhythmic spectator as a sort of prose tune, in which 
 the accents in the movement predominantly syncopate with 
 the elastic subjective temporal pulses of the onlooker, if 
 he be a "timer." When the schoolboy and the Indian 
 move progressively the phenomena of body-rhythm become 
 evident, in addition to body-balance, which, of course, still 
 operates. The "stresser," the "word painter," and the 
 "phraser" are often capable of the most subtle appreciation 
 of static body-balance in a sentence, and are always aware, 
 to a certain extent, of the temporal quality of body- 
 rhythm; but they cannot easily evoke a scale of subjective 
 temporal measurement, and, accordingly, their attention, 
 when they react to progressive movement in language, is 
 on the weakness or strength of accents and their merely 
 numerical recurrence, on the relations of tone-color, and 
 the interplay of thought and mood associations. 
 
 The intellectual act of balancing the memory of three 
 stress accents in one phrase against three such accents in 
 another, regardless of their time relations, is a unifying 
 
 1 Puffer, E., Studies in symmetry, Harv. Psy. St., I, 1903; Gordon, 
 K., Esthetics, N.Y., 1909; etc.
 
 CONCLUSION 83 
 
 process similar to body-balance. Suppose that the school- 
 boy lifts his arms above his head three times, regardless of 
 temporal regularity. Presently let him lift them up again 
 three times at irregular intervals, quite different from those 
 of his first three movements. There is a mental satisfaction 
 in being able to group his first three acts as a numerical 
 pattern repeated in his second group of arm-liftings. We 
 enjoy this subjective unification of the number of the 
 boy's movements in the way that we enjoy a single act of 
 body-balance. Similarly, we might enjoy contemplating 
 the fact that there are five fingers on one hand and five 
 on the other. 
 
 Stress-patterns, small and large, from the balance of 
 two iambs to the balance of two paragraphs, similarly 
 "grouped," figure in the rhythmic experience of every 
 "timer"; but they are always superimposed upon time- 
 patterns. The inveterate "stresser," however, has a much 
 less complete experience, in that only one of the two 
 elements is a distinct factor in the pleasure he obtains 
 from prose and verse. As to prose, moreover, no "non- 
 timer" seems able to make clear the nature of his own 
 experience. To say that it is due to a generous "mixture" 
 of "all sorts of metres" is the same as confessing that the 
 experience is mere hodge-podge. Is it not more accurate 
 and sincere for him to say that, while he may have a 
 subtle sense for simple and occult balance of stress-patterns 
 in prose, and possibly a tremendous sense for tone-color 
 and the artistic adjustment of thought and mood associa- 
 tion, nevertheless his sense of time is not sufficiently keen 
 for him to organize objectively irregular series of sounds 
 such as he confesses, by his term "mixture of all sorts of 
 metres," are typical of prose? Such an admission is likely 
 to be followed by a realization that one's sense of time can 
 be sharpened by practice, and that the enrichment and 
 completion of the rhythmic experience is worth an effort
 
 84 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 in this direction. Our loss of time-sense is largely due to 
 our conventionally passive enjoyment of rhythm, so that 
 the deliberate practice in tapping schemes of syncopation, 
 together with attempts to tap the rhythmic tunes of prose, 
 is a ready means of leading us back to the sharpness of 
 temporal sense no doubt possessed by our primitive an- 
 cestors. 
 
 The aggressive "timer," of course, gets his keenest 
 delight from prose in the fact that he feels no trammels. 
 His instinctive processes revel in the unlimited freedom 
 assured by the possibilities of elastic pulses and automatic 
 syncopation. The pulses dance along of their own accord, 
 falling in with the movement of the prose syllables and 
 creating by their predominant syncopation a rhythmic tune, 
 which is enriched by the texture of stress-patterns, pitch- 
 patterns, tone-color-patterns, balances of thought and 
 mood, etc., up to the full experience of literary enjoyment. 
 The typical "stresser" or deficient "timer," may feel that 
 he gets just as much pleasure from his time-blurred group- 
 ings, especially since he may exceed the "tuner" in his 
 susceptibility to some of the other factors in prose style 
 besides duration. But the aggressively rhythmic "timer" 
 excels in a majority of the factors mentioned above, and, 
 most interesting of all, can be brought to a fairly clear 
 description of his experience. If he adds to his easy and 
 spontaneous coordination of haphazard sounds and his 
 instinctive sense of swing, a subtle ability to judge the 
 fitness of rhythmic movement to the underlying thought 
 and mood of a prose passage, he superimposes upon what 
 might be considered a purely musical endowment a defi- 
 nitely literary gift. 
 
 One chief reason for rebelling against the two-beat 
 theory advanced by Sievers as an explanation for Old 
 English verse, is that its application forces upon our ancient 
 bards the limitations of defective tune-sense. As already
 
 CONCLUSION 85 
 
 explained in Chapter II, Sievers and Schipper define 
 rhythm from the point of view of "timers," but apply it in 
 the two-beat theory from the point of view of " stressers." 
 The contradiction in this attitude is quite flat. Schipper 2 
 defines poetical rhythm as "a succession of syllables so 
 arranged as to be uttered in divisions of time which are 
 symmetrical in their relation to one another." Nothing 
 could be more definite, more exactly in line with the 
 experience of a "timer." Similarly, Sievers declares, in no 
 uncertain terms, 8 that "by far the most important among 
 these factors (in rhythm) are the first two named: time- 
 organization and stress-gradation." In the face of all 
 this, the two-beat theory is erected on the confessed 
 assumption that the Old English bards delivered their 
 hemistichs according to the manner of "free recitation." 4 
 In other words, they did not utter their verse "in divisions 
 of time which are symmetrical in their relation to one 
 another," nor was "time-organization" one of the "by 
 far" . . . "most important" factors. All that is impor- 
 tant, according to Sievers and Schipper, is the fact that 
 two syllables were stressed in each half line. Either the 
 two-beat theory is in need of repair, or Sievers and Schip- 
 per, and so Westphal and Saran, whose definitions of 
 rhythm they virtually adopt, will have to devise new 
 definitions to fit the theory. 
 
 In prose, the acts of judgment, unifying and balancing 
 succeeding phrases merely by recording the number of 
 chief accents in each phrase, are interwoven with our pro- 
 gressive rhythmic experience. Simple and occult balance 
 both come constantly into operation. The simple balance 
 
 2 Schipper, op. cit., p. 4. 
 
 1 Sievers, Metrische Studien, Kon. sack. Ges. d. Wiss. Abh. phil.- 
 hist. KL, XXI, p. 31. 
 
 4 Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik, Halle, 1893, p. 22: "einen freieren 
 sprechvortrag, nicht gleichmassig taktierenden."
 
 86 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 of an epigram is easy to detect. Straightforward increase 
 or decrease in the length of phrases (measured by accents) 
 can be understood by any one. So no one would find 
 difficulty in grasping the aesthetic satisfaction of a single 
 short phrase or sentence after many long ones, in spite of 
 the fact that this latter form of balance is usually termed 
 "occult." 
 
 The constant operation of hidden symmetry, of course, 
 includes some effects which are lost upon the average 
 reader or hearer. Yet they are based upon easily ex- 
 plained principles. It is chiefly a matter of attention, 
 voluntary and involuntary. Invitations to attention, due 
 to different sources, can accumulate upon a single syllable. 
 In the language of everyday life: a woman passes by 
 wearing white gaiters; we find ourselves giving more units 
 of attention to her feet than to her face and figure. 
 Applied to prose, one word or phrase can elicit from us 
 enough attention to balance it evenly or more than evenly 
 against a paragraph. The needle which pricks us unex- 
 pectedly makes us forget the haystack in which it was 
 hidden. The invitations to attention felt in a phrase may 
 be of the most varied nature: sensations and associations 
 due to time, pitch, and stress-patterns, interacting with 
 tone-color; suggestions due to striking contrasts in mood or 
 thought; emphasis resulting from mere position at the 
 beginning or end of a sequence, or, possibly, from some 
 individual caprice. The less subtle person may say to 
 himself simply: "This phrase is quite short; the rest of 
 the sentence is much longer. I enjoy the contrast." In 
 this case his enjoyment of the contrast gives him the 
 equipoise which we assume to be requisite to the comfort of 
 an erect mind. 
 
 It would be ridiculous, however, to pretend that every 
 mind progresses to such a tune of constant balancings. 
 The naked Hopi Indian, climbing over the rocks to his
 
 CONCLUSION 87 
 
 cliff-house, moves with all the inevitable grace of a parab- 
 ola, although the equations of his motion are as com- 
 plicated as that of the parabola is simple. A city-bred 
 man would probably cover the same ground with a com- 
 bination of scrambling and stumbling that might easily 
 resemble in its curve of progression the sound-photograph 
 of some peculiar noise. To an aggressively rhythmic 
 spectator, witnessing both performances, spontaneity, ease, 
 and fitness between the motions and the task would 
 characterize the Indian's movements, while awkwardness 
 and more or less wasted effort would mark the upward 
 advance of the city-bred man. 
 
 In verse the "timer" looks for particular forms of 
 temporal and accentual "moving balance" from beat to 
 beat, as when one dances or marches on level ground; 
 in prose it is as if one climbed over stock and stone, where 
 it is not a matter of any certain balance-pattern, but of 
 maintaining an easy succession of balances, whose choice 
 depends very largely upon economy or upon the line of 
 least resistance. Thus it is with the rhythm of his thought, 
 so long as it is conducted by fairly clear images and words. 5 
 To the aggressively rhythmic even a train of fleeting 
 imagery usually preserves a certain orderliness of move- 
 ment, varying from the simple, wave-like curve of grace 
 to the cumulative swing of dynamic efficiency. But the 
 essence of the "timer's" thought-rhythm does not seem to 
 have been heretofore described. It consists in the fusion 
 of at least two processes : first, the consciousness of tension- 
 summits, small and large; second, subjective impressions of 
 temporal intervals between these summits, syncopating or 
 coinciding with certain pulse-like impressions, marking 
 subjective units of time. These unitary pulses are elastic, 
 that is capable of accelerating and retarding, just as when 
 
 1 With regard to imageless thought, see Binet, A. and Simon, T. f 
 Langage et penste, XIV, 1908, p. 339.
 
 88 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 they assist in measuring the intervals of articulate speech; 
 but in thought-rhythm the possibilities of speed-change 
 seem to be tremendously increased. Such Protean rhythm 
 leaps over chasms, dangles on the edge of precipices, swoops 
 through abysses, shivers itself into atomic dust, or suddenly 
 liquefies into the dignity of oceans. These measuring 
 pulses, with their exaggerated range of elasticity, never 
 quite forsake the "timer's" waking hours. A night of 
 dreamless sleep shrinks into half a beat, a moment of pain 
 plays a protracted gamut of duration; but the soul once 
 definitely committed to the rhythm of subjective time 
 spins on like a gyroscope, regardless of upsetting. 
 
 The general results of the present investigation, including 
 a statement of whatever well-known principles have been 
 confirmed, in addition to whatever new explanations and 
 conclusions seem to be justified by the data adduced in 
 Appendix III, may be listed as follows: 
 
 I. Rhythmic experience, rather than so-called objective 
 rhythm, deserves the focus of our attention. Rhythmic 
 performance exhibits interesting objective relations, but the 
 vital issue, even in performance, is the nature of accom- 
 panying subjective reactions. 
 
 II. Rhythmic experience is so complex, and individuals 
 differ so largely in the enjoyment of it, that a new phrasing 
 of its meaning would be necessary for each person, in order 
 to avoid errors of inaccurate generalization. Nevertheless, 
 for all practical purposes, its varieties may be roughly 
 grouped into three kinds: passive, passive with aggressive 
 tendencies, and thoroughly aggressive. So, there are 
 inaccurate and accurate manifestations; experiences based 
 chiefly upon sensations of stress, and experiences based 
 chiefly upon impressions of time; etc., etc. 
 
 III. "Aggressive" implies, first of all, the ability to 
 organize subjectively into a sort of rhythmic tune any 
 haphazard series of sounds, provided they are not too close
 
 CONCLUSION 89 
 
 to be distinguished or too far apart to be held together in 
 one wave of attention. Observer No. 7 evinces such 
 ability. A more detailed analysis of aggressive character- 
 istics is given further on. 
 
 IV. Since the rhythmic experience of an aggressive, 
 fairly accurate "timer" appears to be, not only more 
 comprehensive, but also much more definite and generally 
 intelligible than that of any confirmed "stresser," especially 
 with regard to irregular series of sounds such as characterize 
 prose utterance, the description of such a "timer's" experi- 
 ence is the most advisable approach we can make to a 
 working definition of rhythm, subjectively considered. 
 
 V. Rhythmic experience, in the case of the "timer," 
 depends, primarily, upon the organization of some part of 
 consciousness into a series of elastic subjective units of 
 time (marked by subjective tension-summits or by sensa- 
 tions of actual muscular contraction). This is his simplest 
 form of rhythmic experience, which may be amplified 
 either by the coincidence of any other successive states of 
 consciousness with this elastic series or by some more 
 complicated form of coordination, obtained through 
 syncopation. Elastic means accelerating or retarding, 
 within limits subjectively determined, beyond which the 
 impression of substitutional "grouping" takes the place of 
 "unitary pulses." This means, for instance, that if one 
 interval is very much faster than another it assumes the 
 relation to its predecessor of a simple fraction such as one 
 half or one third rather than the relation of progressive 
 hastening. According to Squire, 6 the most primitive form 
 of rhythm, as evinced by children, is unitary. The evi- 
 dence of certain forms of tom-tom beating, such as some 
 of those recorded by Boas in connection with the Kwakiutl 
 Indians, and others observed among the Apaches by the 
 present writer, indicate that primitive peoples have an 
 
 8 Squire, op. tit., p. 540 ff.
 
 90 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 unmistakable fondness for series of monotonous, ungrouped 
 drum-beats, either alone or combined, by means of syncopa- 
 tion, with more complicated series of sounds. At certain 
 rates of speed, the well-known phenomena of subjective 
 grouping into two's, three's, etc., either voluntary or 
 involuntary, begin to operate; but it must not be forgotten 
 that at other somewhat slower rates this subjective group- 
 ing ceases, although soothing or exciting reactions may 
 persist. With the aggressive "timer" these affective 
 reactions are likely to persist until the individual limit of 
 an attention span is reached. 
 
 VI. Precise objective measurement of the syllabic inter- 
 vals of ordinary prose, spoken in a natural manner, proves 
 that these intervals must be considered, mathematically, as 
 forming a virtually haphazard series. Such spoken prose 
 does not produce an unbroken rhythmic experience, except 
 for observers, like No. 7, who can subjectively organize, 
 upon a temporal basis, an objectively irregular drum-beat 
 series. 
 
 VII. Observer No. 7 in certain states of mind, not 
 always, obtained a continuous, definite rhythmic experience 
 from every series of drum-beats, however irregular, which 
 was presented to him. Other observers showed similar 
 tendencies, but not so clearly. (See record of Observer No. 
 12, who judges Pater as regular music; Appendix III, 
 section xxvii.) 
 
 VIII. Wundt's statement, that no series of impressions 
 exists that cannot in some way be conceived as rhythmic, is 
 experimentally established, but with the limitation that no 
 clear, continuous rhythmic experience is possible in connec- 
 tion with haphazard series, except for individuals especially 
 endowed. 
 
 IX. When this experience of rhythm is easily produced 
 by repeated renderings of a passage of prose, and is 
 accompanied by suggestions of spontaneity (judged by
 
 CONCLUSION 91 
 
 surprise) in the organization of the time-intervals, stress- 
 groups, and complex-tension-groups, which are coordinated 
 with the under-unit of time, two standards (ease and 
 spontaneity) are attained which may be regarded as 
 musical. When, however, it becomes possible to judge the 
 appropriateness of the rhythmic movement to the under- 
 lying thought and mood, a specific literary standard is 
 added to the musical point of view. A passage of prose 
 may thus be said to have rhythmic "possibilities," the sum 
 of which may be graded high or low according to the 
 "literary" standard of fitness, in addition to its grading as 
 purely musical. 
 
 X. Language is regarded by a "timer" as rhythmically 
 "prose" (in its sum of possibilities when uttered) so long as 
 syncopation and substitution predominate over coincidence 
 between the accented syllables and an under-unit series of 
 subjective time-intervals. When coincidence predominates, 
 language is rhythmically "verse." The division into lines 
 and stanzas is sufficient often to suggest to the mind the 
 combination of processes by means of which potential 
 prose is regarded or felt as verse. This explains Wallin's 
 experiments. 7 
 
 XI. Meumann's statement that there is no one sense of 
 rhythm, but rather a complex of mental processes, is con- 
 firmed by the results of the tests. Rhythmic experience 
 may thus be roughly described as a complex of perception, 
 emotion, and sensation, with all three elements subjected 
 to the moulding processes of attention, both voluntary and 
 involuntary. Correlation with a subjective temporal unit, 
 however, is indispensable to the clear-cut rhythmic satisfac- 
 tion felt by a "tuner." "Suggestions" of rhythm, to be 
 sure, are easily derived by the mere repetition of an 
 accentual sequence such as two accents in one phrase, 
 matched by two accents in another. But if we examine 
 
 7 Wallin, op. cit., p. 64 ff. See also Chapter II, above.
 
 92 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 closely any actual experience, we find that time relations 
 are inevitably implicated. The "stresser" is consequently 
 seen to be a "timer" in spite of himself. What makes his 
 rhythmic experience vague is not that time-sense is absent, 
 but merely that it is deficient. 
 
 XII. Syncopation is an accepted musical term of great 
 significance in the analysis of rhythmic experience. 8 Sound 
 rhythm, of course, deals with sounds and silences; but 
 concomitant with purely sound rhythm is motor rhythm, 
 thought rhythm, etc. Concomitant sets of time-intervals, 
 accordingly, when not coinciding, institute one form of 
 syncopation. Another form occurs when there is inter- 
 change in the nature of the sensations or movements which 
 mark off time-intervals. Finger-taps alternating with 
 spoken syllables are an illustration. The series of tapped 
 intervals laps over the series marked by syllables. 
 
 XIII. "Spontaneous substitution" is a term, used in the 
 present work, for a principle illustrated almost anywhere in 
 the sonatas of Beethoven, the nocturnes of Chopin, or such 
 familiar music as the "Scenes from Childhood" by Schu- 
 mann. It occurs whenever a triplet, for instance, enters un- 
 expectedly into the course of a melody already announced, 
 as a substitute for an equivalent single note. If this triplet 
 were to occur in each half of the melody at an expected 
 point, it would, of course, be merely a case of "schematic 
 substitution." The principle is illustrated very clearly on 
 the first page of "The Temple of Memphis," composed for 
 the piano by Cyril Scott. Toward the beginning of the 
 piece we can see the unit-interval, supposed to be pulsing 
 regularly in the bass, spontaneously subdivided in the 
 
 8 This must not be confused with the limited use of "Syncope," 
 as employed by Sievers (Rhythmische-melodische Studien, Heidelberg, 
 1912, p. 10) to mean the omission of an unaccented syllable in a 
 "foot," on account of which omission an accented syllable does duty 
 for the two, etc.
 
 CONCLUSION 93 
 
 treble, at one time into two, at another into three or four 
 smaller intervals. Further on we find the unitary pulses 
 themselves grouped into clusters of varying size. The 
 majority of observers, in the present tests, without knowing 
 the source of what they were judging, pronounced the 
 rhythm to be interesting and pleasant, feeling the unitary 
 pulses as the dominant impression. Applied as an organiz- 
 ing factor to the haphazard beats of prose, the principle 
 was accredited by the observers with considerable value. 
 
 XIV. A "subjective accent" in speech is a complex 
 tension-summit, in which impressions of stress, pitch; 
 duration, and tone-color, in addition to associations due to 
 thought and feeling, collaborate in various proportions to 
 produce a more or less conspicuous foothold for attention. 
 "Grammatical accent" has been used as a term for the 
 conventional stress relations between the syllables of a 
 word, as recorded in dictionaries. Syllables have no 
 integrity as sensations corresponding to their values as 
 assigned by convention. Some observers "feel" a three- 
 syllable word as a continuum with a single crest. It 
 appears that most observers, influenced largely by con- 
 vention, experience a three-syllable word as a continuum 
 with three crests, one higher than the others. Some 
 observers, however, feel three or four crests in a word of 
 only two syllables such as "swarming." The same is true 
 for a series of words uttered together in the continuum of a 
 phrase. So far as objective measurements are concerned 
 the sound-photograph of a single vowel frequently exhibits 
 half a dozen crests. 
 
 A subjective accent in which either grammatical or 
 fortuitous stress predominates may be pitted against an 
 accent due to logical or rhetorical import. So pitch may 
 be balanced against duration. This is usually called a 
 form of "substitutional" or "occult" balance. The ob- 
 servers differ in the pleasure they elicit from the general
 
 94 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 operation of this principle by degrees ranging from enthu- 
 siasm to resentment. 
 
 XV. "Aggressively rhythmic" is a term applied to those 
 who, like Observer No. 7, not only attain a fair degree of 
 reproductive precision in the tests, but evince a marked 
 pleasure in rhythmic exercises and a marked tendency to 
 organize upon a temporal subjective basis all of their 
 conscious life. Abundance and vividness of auditory and 
 motor imagery; unit accuracy; sense of swing and ability 
 to syncopate, especially in complex tasks; pleasure in the 
 effects of acceleration and syncopation; pleasure in unitary 
 pulses as well as in groupings superimposed upon them; 
 and, finally, strength of voluntary and involuntary "sub- 
 jective rhythm," seem to be the conditions of this ability 
 to organize, upon a time basis, any haphazard series. 
 
 Observer No. 7 is "aggressively rhythmic." Observers 
 No. 1 and 12 show some of the aggressive characteristics, 
 though not all. "Accurately rhythmic, but passive" 
 describes Observer No. 11. "Fairly accurate, passively 
 rhythmic, but with aggressive possibilities" classifies 
 roughly Observers No. 4, 6, and 8; "inaccurately rhythmic, 
 with varying degrees of passiveness," Observers No. 2, 3, 
 5, 9, and 10. This grouping stands, of course, for results 
 of limited tests. A later set of experiments might easily 
 change the arrangement. 
 
 XVI. An elastic under-unit (either strictly "unitary" or 
 grouped in two's or three's), spontaneous substitution, and 
 the imposition of a humming tune, seem to give most 
 assistance to the present group of observers, taken as a 
 whole, in obtaining a continuous rhythmic experience out of 
 haphazard material. But for those who score highest in the 
 requirements listed under XV for "aggressive rhythmic 
 sense" (Observer No. 7 and to some extent No. 12) syn- 
 copation is of prime importance. No. 12 grades it higher 
 than any of the other organizing factors.
 
 CONCLUSION . 95 
 
 XVII. The experiments in syncopation practice with 
 seven's against five's, together with the judgments passed 
 by the observers in connection with hearing haphazard 
 series, point very strongly to the combination of a time- 
 beating motor performance, such as tapping unitary pulses 
 with the hand, and the syncopating hummed performance 
 of the haphazard beats, as the quickest means whereby an 
 aggressively rhythmic observer can organize the series upon 
 a basis capable of approximately accurate repetition. 
 
 XVIII. For a passively rhythmic observer, the hearing 
 of such tunes from others, and the watching of their per- 
 formance, is of great service in developing aggressiveness. 
 
 XIX. For aggressively rhythmic states of mind and for 
 these alone, it is true that "no series of impressions exists 
 that cannot in some way be conceived as rhythmic"; but 
 the secret can be made clear to those with aggressive 
 possibilities, by beating and humming syncopating rhythmic 
 tunes, in which there is added to the haphazard series the 
 properly elastic series of unitary pulses. 
 
 XX. The tests for individual difference in imitative 
 "sense of swing" and ability to perform tasks in simple 
 and complex syncopation show a close correlation in some 
 cases. But there are marked exceptions. (See Appendix 
 III, sections vii, viii, xxii, and xxiv.) 
 
 XXI. Evident deficiency in auditory imagery is accom- 
 panied in the present tests by marked inability to syn- 
 copate, but not necessarily by marked inability to catch 
 the swing of a series. The indications are that motor 
 imagery may be of more assistance in the latter operation 
 than in syncopation. (See Appendix III, sections iv, vii, 
 viii, xxii, and xxiv.) 
 
 XXII. It is a mathematical fact, due merely to the 
 possibilities of permutation and combination, that all the 
 conceivable changes in the stress-patterns of language could 
 easily have been rung long ago. Subtlety of adjustment,
 
 96 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 appropriateness of rhythm to sense, especially in larger 
 grouping, has "developed"; but until the true psychological 
 attitude toward rhythm as an experience is observed, any 
 so-called "history of the development of rhythm" is certain 
 to be founded upon misconceptions. 9 
 
 XXIII. How idle it is to depend on any one "scanning" 
 of a passage is proved by the tests on "possibility scanning" 
 described in Appendix III, section xvii. By one observer 
 a short group of words was found susceptible of being 
 marked for stress, pitch, duration, and weight, in seven 
 hundred ways! By two others the number was found to 
 .be much larger. The marking of grammatical accents 
 often serves a useful purpose in assisting us to locate 
 unpleasant monotony, tricks of style, etc., but we should 
 not forget that rapidity of utterance can smooth out most 
 of the grammatical accents, while a slow delivery may 
 create unexpected summits of stress. 
 
 XXIV. The recent study of sentence melody, elaborated 
 by Sievers, is open to similar objections. As the hobby of a 
 great scholar it is interesting-, and as a poetic speculation 
 it is no doubt alluring; but as an accurate basis for textual 
 criticism nothing could be more shaky. It appears fantas- 
 tic enough to get the "one right" melody out of a printed 
 stanza of modern verse, but to attempt such necromancy 
 for an ancient text 10 seems hardly in keeping with the 
 scientific aims of modern scholarship. 
 
 9 Nothing is more astonishing than to find the evidence for some 
 "remarkable rhythm" adduced in the form of bare conventional 
 scanning. In a previous study, the writer undertook to mark gram- 
 matical accent, according to the rules of approved philology, in a few 
 passages taken out of our oldest Kentish and West-Saxon charters, 
 about as dry business documents as we possess, and found very 
 shortly the most varied and entertaining combinations of "phonics" 
 and "dochmiacs." To see, therefore, these same stress-patterns, or 
 rather sequences of eye-rhythm, pointed out in a passage of Walter 
 Pater as an evidence of "development," would be disconcerting. 
 
 10 Sievers, E., Zur dlteren Judith, Prag, 1908.
 
 CONCLUSION 97 
 
 XXV. Three standards ease, spontaneity, and fitness 
 have been mentioned in section IX, according to which 
 we pass judgment on rhythmic experience. When we tap 
 the drum-beat tune of a sentence and establish our synco- 
 pating under-unit of time, we are in a position to detect 
 clumsiness, artifice, or impropriety in the swing suggested 
 by the spoken text. Degree of ease is soon determined by 
 the facility with which we can nod or tap or move our feet 
 to the movement of the drum-beat tune. The highest 
 value, in such a case, would be put upon a sentence in 
 which the greatest ease was combined with a maximum of 
 complexity in structure. Our judgments for spontaneity 
 would depend upon our ability to establish evidence of tech- 
 nical trickery in the shape of repeated patterns, etc. Fitness 
 is the most difficult of the three standards to apply. With 
 a militant theme the propriety of a martial rhythm would 
 be easy to estimate; but with subtle and suggestive thought 
 material, it would take almost as much ability to detect a 
 degree of fitness as to create it. Here, too, is where tone- 
 color and nicety of diction may be easily mistaken for the 
 actual rhythmic movement, which, of course, they influence. 
 
 XXVI. All judgments of rhythmic experience connected 
 with prose depend upon individual renderings of the 
 passage, which must be read aloud repeatedly, as well as 
 tapped. Underlying the variations resulting from such a 
 series of renderings, three causes or motives may be men- 
 tioned: caprice, economy, and artistic adjustment. In the 
 first place, a certain tempo or a certain sequence of stress- 
 groups may easily depend upon a whim. The second 
 motive rests upon the fact that good form is economical. 
 Efficiency in delivering a message demands sometimes bal- 
 ance, sometimes contrast; sometimes progressive increase 
 or the reverse; sometimes speed, sometimes more dignity 
 of pace. The third motive implies, not simply specific 
 attempts at an appropriate rhythm, but a sportive interest
 
 98 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 in the problem of multiplying complications without 
 sacrificing ease, as if it were all a sort of game. This 
 verges readily into artifice. 
 
 XXVII. Fundamental rhythmic experience, in the case 
 of a timer, listening to spoken language, is either the result 
 of coincidence or syncopation between the measuring pulses 
 and the objective stimulus; i.e., it is either verse or prose 
 experience, according to the form of coordination which 
 predominates. A secondary broader rhythm may be 
 superimposed in which the arrangement of groups is either 
 symmetrical or unsymmetrical. The enjoyment of this is 
 often more a matter of sensations of static balance than of 
 temporal succession. Only when the temporal intervals 
 involved are in the forefront is the resulting experience 
 strictly rhythmical. In any case, these four elements 
 fundamental prose and fundamental verse experience, 
 "superimposed symmetrical and superimposed unsymmetrical 
 broader grouping make possible four combinations: 
 prose experience, grouped symmetrically, as in the reaction 
 from parts of the Authorized Version where verses match 
 each other; prose experience, grouped unsymmetrically, as 
 in the reaction from ordinary conversation or the reading 
 of average so-called "prose"; verse experience, grouped 
 symmetrically, as in the reaction from ordinary "poetry"; 
 verse experience, grouped unsymmetrically, as in the re- 
 action from "freer" forms of poetry and from passages of 
 would-be prose. This applies to "timers." As soon as we 
 substitute for their clear-cut forms of temporal coordination 
 the vague impressions of a "stresser" with defective time- 
 sense, it is impossible to make distinctions, and all the 
 delusions of certain writers of "vers libre" and "poetic 
 prose" take possession of the field. 
 
 XXVIII. The student of rhetoric who wishes to develop 
 possibilities of rhythmic excellence in his attempts to write 
 verse, even though he be by nature deficient in time-sense,
 
 CONCLUSION 99 
 
 may be brought to feel the difference between compositions 
 that are merely "correct" and "duly varied," both syllab- 
 ically and metrically, and verse in which ease, spontaneity, 
 and fitness in the drum-beat tunes are also included among 
 the criteria. It is presupposed, of course, that a satis- 
 factory adjustment of vowel and consonant color, as well 
 as of associations due to fundamental thought and feeling, 
 must be likewise attained. 
 
 So there needs to be a new procedure in the study of 
 prose composition. It is here that a native "stresser," 
 with defective time-sense, particularly needs to sharpen his 
 blunted perceptions. While he reads the standard authors 
 he should walk or tap or nod an accompaniment, with his 
 attention fixed on syncopation rather than coincidence. 
 If he really wishes to develop his time-sense systematically, 
 he should make himself expert in the automatic perform- 
 ance of syncopating tasks, such as tapping two's against 
 three's or even five's against seven's (a comparatively easy 
 feat if only he can be assisted by some one who himself 
 has mastered it, and who can let him hear the drum-beat 
 tune of a fairly correct performance, as is indicated roughly 
 in Appendix II, section xxiv, sub-sections 2 and 3). In any 
 case let him tap off the drum-beat rhythm of his most 
 impelling experience with a sentence till he learns it; then 
 let him hum it as a sort of tune, while he establishes, by 
 beating tune with his hand, the proper accelerating and 
 retarding series of unitary pulses with which it is freely to 
 syncopate. The rhythmic tunes thus learned from Sir 
 Thomas Browne, De Quincey, or Pater will sing themselves 
 in his head while he does his own writing, so that without 
 knowing it, he will be guided in his choice of words toward 
 whatever rhythmic facility it is in him to acquire. The 
 last step would be to reclothe the drum-beat tunes with 
 the complicated veil of tone-color and sense-association due 
 to their original words, and let them dance themselves, by
 
 100 THE RHYTHM OF PROSE 
 
 means of repeated practice, into the automatic processes of 
 the brain. If they help us at all, they probably help us 
 most when thus hidden. 
 
 XXIX. Many of the methods of literary criticism need 
 to be revised in a similar way. Any judgment passed upon 
 the rhythmic possibilities of an author's style, is of no 
 value psychologically, if motor response is neglected as a 
 test. 11 Vague impressions from a person whose musical ear 
 is abnormally keen may easily be considered of greater 
 value than mechanical analysis on the part of some un- 
 musical, unliterary hair-splitter; but the time is surely past 
 when any man of unusual endowment is willing to throw 
 away the advantages of efficient method or to oppose his 
 so-called "intuition," subject as all human senses are to 
 countless illusions, to the cumulative evidence of experi- 
 mental data. 
 
 Any experimental undertaking, however, which is not 
 based upon a thorough understanding of syncopation and 
 its multiform possibilities, of spontaneous substitution, of 
 acceleration and retarding, and the "sense of swing," will 
 find the problem slippery. Fortunately, all of these factors, 
 once made plain even to a passively rhythmic mind, are 
 much easier to apply in the actual study of a bit of prose, 
 than the ancient trumpery of skeleton scanning "am- 
 phibrachs," "bacchics," "anti-bacchics," "antispasts," 
 "molossi," "dochmiacs," and " proceleusmatics " which 
 heretofore have been brandished before our eyes, as if 
 they were anything more than, as stress-patterns, merely 
 half the story. 
 
 Each individual must make his own rhythmic judgments 
 as to spontaneity, ease, and fitness. The judgments as to 
 fitness, involving every form of association and suggestion, 
 
 11 According to Stetson, "Every rhythm is dynamic; it consists of 
 actual movements." See Chapter II, above, for statements from 
 various psychologists.
 
 CONCLUSION 101 
 
 would include descriptive terms for any particular move- 
 ment, as well as for special types of subjective syncopation. 
 Adjectives of all degrees of definiteness (such as "cumula- 
 tive," "undulating," "rugged," "languorous," "martial," 
 "galloping," "soothing," "exciting," "dignified," or "bois- 
 terous") would still be used to illustrate motor and sensory 
 suggestions. "Falling" and "rising," as terms descriptive 
 of patterns in which the precedence of accented or unac- 
 cented syllables is emphasized, possess just as much sig- 
 nificance, and, in fact, much more when the temporal 
 element is duly valued. 
 
 Finally, to make a shift from literary criticism to broader 
 fields, there may issue from investigations similar to the 
 present one, as a possible result significant for music, for 
 literature, and for living in general a more or less fruitful 
 interest, on the part of the moderately rhythmic, in their 
 chance to breathe the air of a garden, from which they 
 were before excluded. There is still for them a wall to be 
 climbed, but at least there are no " proceleusmatic " palings 
 on the top of it. The condition imposed, that we should learn 
 to syncopate, if we wish to advance into the secret places of 
 rhythmic experience, is not so forbidding as it sounds. So 
 far as the requisite technique is concerned, every optimistic 
 little African who performs the double-shuffle has, in a 
 measure, "attained." For instruments, all we need is a 
 table, and two fingers with which to practice tapping. 
 
 XXX. To what an extent an individual whose rhythmic 
 proficiency is less than moderate can develop the charac- 
 teristics of an aggressive "timer," is a matter for further 
 investigation and experiment. It seems, at any rate, 
 assured from the tests already made in syncopation practice 
 (see Appendix III, section xxiv) that an observer, appar- 
 ently deficient in temporal perception, can very quickly 
 surprise himself by his achievements, when assisted by the 
 harmless magic of a drum-beat tune.
 
 ' .' 

 
 APPENDIX I 
 DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS 
 
 For the purpose of the experiments two rooms were used: one 
 the regular sound-room belonging to the Department of Psychology 
 at Columbia; the other, an especially constructed, fairly sound-proof 
 cabinet built into one end of an underground room belonging to the 
 Department of Physics. Within this cabinet a second cabinet was 
 set up, with mattresses and thick padding for walls and ceiling, and 
 several inches of sawdust on the floor. Loose curtains of canton- 
 flannel were hung inside to assist in preventing reflection of sound. 
 Within these surroundings, devised to exclude as much as possible of 
 external noise, and to destroy as much as possible of internal reflec- 
 tion, were installed the instruments for transforming by means of a 
 diaphragm and small mirrors, 1 the vibrations of the voice into vibra- 
 tions of a light-ray, susceptible of being photographed. The camera, 
 including the machinery for regulating the motion of the film, was 
 placed on the other side of a padded partition which cut off the larger 
 cabinet from the rest of the room, A very small plate-glass window, 
 set into the partition, allowed the ray of light used in the photographs 
 to pass from the inner cabinet into the camera, containing the moving 
 film. 
 
 One of the chief difficulties in securing accurate sound-photographs 
 consists in getting a source of light which is not only sufficiently strong, 
 but sufficiently quiet. The spluttering of an arc-light, which seems 
 to have been used in similar photography, previous to our experi- 
 ments in the summer of 1915, is in itself sufficient to communicate 
 sound vibrations to a highly sensitive diaphragm. Our experiments, 
 accordingly, appear to have been the first in which the photography 
 of continuous speech, involving the possibility for several hundred feet 
 of rapidly moving film to pass by without intermission, was accom- 
 plished with a system of convenient, noiseless, steady sources of light. 
 
 1 As far back as 1878, the time of Blake's experiments, and probably 
 earlier, such instruments have been in use. See also Rigollot, H., 
 and Chavanon, A., Projection des ph&nomknes acoustiques, Journal de 
 physique, II, 1883. 
 
 103
 
 104 APPENDIX I 
 
 In order to carry out our purpose, small Mazda lights were used 
 and burned at an abnormally high voltage. Each lamp was placed 
 in a cylindrical case of metal and a ray from a portion of the straight 
 filament was allowed to escape through a slit in the side of the case. 
 This ray was conveyed through a converging lens to a small mirror 
 attached to a very light steel axle turning upon bearings of glass. 
 This axle was connected with a mica diaphragm by means of a human 
 hair wound once about the axle, with one end fastened to the dia- 
 phragm and the other to a metal spring which projected in front of 
 the mirror. The system of connecting diaphragms with mirrors of 
 this nature has been hi use for some tune. D. C. Miller 1 describes 
 such a diaphragm connected with the axle by means of a quartz thread. 
 Miller, in his very well known investigations, has made many photo- 
 graphs of sound with an arc-ray as a source of light. Oscillographs 
 have, of course, been in use for a number of years. 
 
 In order to secure a time-line sufficiently accurate for the purposes 
 of the present experiments, a similar ray from a Mazda light was 
 conveyed to a mirror mounted upon a spring in front of a small magnet, 
 through which a weak, alternating current was passed. 3 By means 
 of this a rate of approximately sixty vibrations per second could be 
 counted upon in the ray of light reflected from the mirror. This 
 vibrating ray was directed, by means of a lens and a second mirror, 
 through the window in the partition to a horizontal slit just in front 
 of the moving film. The image from the ray, being a vertical line 
 of light, crossed the slit at right angles. A similar ray from the mirror 
 in front of the diaphragm was projected so that the image fell at right 
 angles to the slit, a little to one side of the vibrating time-line image. 
 The intersections of these two lines with the slit formed two points 
 of light, vibrating in a horizontal direction, and photographing them- 
 selves upon the vertically moving film in the form of two continuous 
 curves. By means of rheostats, the electrically driven machinery 
 within the camera could be adjusted to carry the film past the slit at 
 varying rates of speed. 
 
 The chief object in the present set of experiments was to obtain as 
 
 1 Miller, D. C., in Engineering, 1912, p. 550 ff. Some tune after 
 the present experiments were finished, Miller's latest investigations 
 have appeared in the form of a book, The Science of Musical Sounds, 
 N. Y., 1916. This contains a detailed description of his "phonodeik." 
 
 1 The disadvantage connected with a time-line produced by the 
 vibrations of a tuning-fork is that even a very fault humming sound 
 will affect a sensitive diaphragm.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS 105 
 
 accurate and as measurable a record of the human voice as possible 
 without the restraint and artificiality imposed by having to speak into 
 voice-keys or mouth-pieces of any kind. By employing a rather 
 sensitive mica diaphragm it was possible, on account of the noise- 
 lessness of the machinery employed, for an observer to stand inside 
 of the cabinet at a comfortable distance from the instrument and 
 have his speech recorded, without his even knowing it. A complete 
 solution, consequently, seems to have been found to the problem 
 whose difficulty prevented Sievers, hi the Vorwort to his Phonetik, 
 edition of 1901, from giving his sanction to experimental phonetics. 
 
 In addition to other precautions that seemed to be advisable, the 
 diaphragm was roughly calibrated. The points of pitch at which 
 phenomena of resonance occurred were located and graphs of the 
 results were made for purposes of correction in any later measurement 
 of amplitudes. The testing of the diaphragm was effected by means 
 of organ pipes under pneumatic pressure. During this operation, as 
 well as during the process of making photographs, an attempt was 
 made to keep the cabinet at a constant temperature of about 18 degrees 
 Centigrade. 
 
 The apparatus made use of in the series of experiments carried out 
 in the sound-room of the Psychological Department included, first 
 of all, a Leipzig time-sense machine, driven by clock-work, which 
 also governed the motion of a kymograph. The adjustments were 
 made so that the revolving bar of the time-machine made one revolu- 
 tion in four seconds, .06 of a second being registered by one milli- 
 meter on the surface of the smoked drum operated by the kymograph. 
 By means of a microscope, readings to .01 of a second were easily 
 possible. For the purposes of the experiments, however, an accuracy 
 of .02 of a second was all that was desired. This, too, is a safer basis 
 of estimate, when the slight irregularities of all kymographs, even 
 when driven by clockwork, are taken into consideration. 
 
 The seven mercury contacts on the circumference of the time- 
 sense machine were used in several ways. For the experiment in simple 
 syncopation six of them were placed at equal intervals of sixty degrees, 
 while the seventh one was sufficiently depressed to avoid a response 
 from the electric sounder attached to the machine. By this means, 
 as the bar revolved, a series of successive clicks, .66 sec. apart, was 
 produced by the sounder. A pointer resting on the revolving drum 
 and connected with the sounder registered upon the drum the series 
 of clicks. A second pointer, connected with an electric key for tapping, 
 registered the attempts of the observer to introduce syncopating 
 taps halfway between the clicks of the sounder.
 
 106 APPENDIX I 
 
 The same setting of the contacts was used when the observer was 
 asked to tap five times, as regularly as possible, during the time that 
 the machine produced seven clicks. For the acceleration experiment 
 the seven contacts were set in such a way that their intervals pro- 
 duced a series of clicks whose spacing, in terms of time, was as follows: 
 .7 sec., .6 sec., .5 sec., .5 sec., .6 sec., .7 sec. After the reproductions 
 of this series made by the observer had been measured, according to 
 the system explained in Appendix II, the contacts were set from time 
 to time so that the observer could himself hear from the machine those 
 of his reproductions chosen for final judgment and comparison with 
 the original series as given by the machine. This procedure made 
 it possible to carry out to some extent Miiller's suggestion 4 in his 
 Methodik that in experiments with time-sense an observer might by 
 some such means be given an opportunity to compare his reproduc- 
 tions with the original stimulus in both orders of time. 
 
 In addition to the time-sense machine and kymograph with its 
 attachments, a sound pendulum, a soundless pendulum, a box metro- 
 nome, an outside metronome mounted upon felt, a Stern variator 
 with pneumatic tank attachments, an Edison four-minute cylinder 
 phonograph, and finally a small specially constructed metal drum 
 about five centimeters in diameter, covered at one end with a thin 
 sheet of phosphor-bronze, were employed in the various tests. The 
 drum was calculated to produce, when struck by a stick tipped with a 
 small piece of hard rubber, a clear but not obtrusively loud sound, 
 with as little suggestion of musical tone as possible. When the drum 
 was tapped, accordingly, the attention of the hearer could be concen- 
 trated upon the length of the time intervals between the blows and 
 the variations in the intensity of the latter. A series of taps upon 
 this drum, performed by Observer No. 1 (in accordance with "felt" 
 syllables in passages of prose, and notes in music), were recorded 
 upon the phonograph. Judgments were passed upon the nature and 
 presumable origin of these taps, by the remaining observers. A tunable 
 reed-organ was used in the harmony tests. Some of the tests for 
 types of imagery and time-estimation were made in the padded cabinet 
 in which the sound-photographing apparatus was installed. 
 
 4 Miiller, G. E., Die Gesichtspunkte und d. Tatsachen d. psychophy- 
 sischen Methodik, Wiesbaden, 1904, p. 205.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 (First Day) 
 
 (For results see 
 Appendix III) 
 
 PAQB PAGE 
 
 I. Preliminary questionnaire 108 (130) 
 
 II. Pulse-rate (rough) 109 (130) 
 
 III. Breath-rate (rough) 109 (130) 
 
 IV. Image-type test (rough) 109 (131) 
 
 V. Unit-accuracy simple form 110 (131) 
 
 VI. Subjective rhythm 110 (132) 
 
 VII. Acceleration experiment (test for "swing") . Ill (133) 
 
 VIII. Schedule syncopation. 113 (143) 
 
 IX. Complex coordination 113 (144) 
 
 X. Walking-rate, etc. (rough) 113 (148) 
 
 XL Pitch memory (rough) 114 (149) 
 
 XII. Harmony memory (rough) 114 (150) 
 
 XIII. Vowel-quality memory (rough) 115 (151) 
 
 (Second Day) 
 
 XIV. Choice of "swing" reproductions 116 (151) 
 
 XV. Intensity memory (rough) 116 (151) 
 
 XVI. Drum-beat rhythm of texts 117 (152) 
 
 XVII. "Possibility" scanning 118 (157) 
 
 (Third Day) 
 One week after Second Day 
 
 XVIII. Pulse consciousness 118 (158) 
 
 XIX. Breath-segments 118 (158) 
 
 XX. Photograph of seven-day-memory reproduc- 
 tion of acceleration series 119 (159) 
 
 XXL Judgment and line-division 119 (159) 
 
 107
 
 108 APPENDIX II 
 
 (Fourth Day) 
 
 XXII. Simple syncopation 119 (159) 
 
 XXIII. Reaction to five's and seven's 120 (160) 
 
 XXIV. Complex syncopation (involving regulated 
 
 practice) 120 (161) 
 
 XXV. Individual "swing" 122 (162) 
 
 XXVI. Musical" swing" 122 (167) 
 
 XXVII. Phonograph test 122 (168) 
 
 XXVIII. Questionnaire 124 (170) 
 
 XXIX. Schedule tests 125 (170) 
 
 XXX. Questionnaire 127 (172) 
 
 XXXI. Unitary music (first test) 127 (173) 
 
 XXXII. Unitary pulses 127 (174) 
 
 XXXIII. Unitary music (second test) 127 (174) 
 
 XXXIV. Factors in organizing drum-beat series . . . 128 (175) 
 
 (First Day) 
 I. Preliminary questionnaire: 
 
 1. Age, descent, profession, amount of musical training. 
 
 2. Describe your favorite type or types of music and your men- 
 
 tal and physical reactions on hearing such music. 
 
 3. Do you consider yourself as of a more or less even tempera- 
 
 ment or given to moods? 
 
 4. Are you slow or quick in forming likes and dislikes? 
 
 5. Have you ever been affected by music in a manner that could 
 
 have been plainly visible to others? 
 
 6. Describe your interest in dancing. 
 
 7. Can you imagine yourself as interested in complicated drum- 
 
 beating? To what extent? 
 
 8. If interested in verse at all, mention one of your favorite 
 
 poets. 
 
 9. If interested in prose style at all, mention one of your favo- 
 
 rite authors in this connection. 
 
 10. Have you ever written original verse? 
 
 11. Describe the sort of events that usually occur in your dreams. 
 
 Do you see things, do things, or hear things, chiefly? 
 
 12. Can you mention any actual word or words you have heard 
 
 in a dream? 
 
 13. Can you name any sort of activity in which you could take 
 
 a definite interest because of subtlety in its form? In
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 109 
 
 other words, could you enjoy a pattern or a problem just 
 because it was elusive? 
 
 14. Do you consider that your scientific or artistic or practical 
 interests predominate? 
 
 n. Pulse-rate (rough): Determined with stop-watch for two ten- 
 second stretches and one thirty-second stretch. 
 
 m. Breath-rate (rough): Observer raises finger at the beginning of 
 each inspiration, while the experimenter records the number 
 indicated during thirty seconds. 
 
 IV. Image-type test (rough) : 
 
 First half: The observer is given a list of printed words concealed 
 by a loose sheet of paper. He slips the sheet down so as to expose 
 one word at a time. The instant he has read the word he closes 
 his eyes and attempts to identify the first image that comes into 
 his mind after the image of the printed word itself, if this happens 
 to persevere. Thereupon he opens his eyes and marks the nature 
 of the image according to the following abbreviations: 
 
 V - visual Temp - temperature 
 
 A = auditory P - pain 
 
 Olf - olfactory Org - organic 
 
 G - gustatory K - kirurst hot ic 
 
 T - touch O - nothing at all 
 
 All images of actual words, seen, heard, or spoken, are to be 
 marked as such: V-verb, or K-verb, A- verb. Units of vividness 
 are also to be added: 3 for vivid, 2 for medium, 1 for dim. 
 
 Second half: The observer, with his eyes closed, hears a list of 
 words read by the experimenter. After each word the observer 
 reports the kind of image evoked according to the above classifi- 
 cation. 
 
 LIST or STIMULUS words: 
 
 1. (read by observer) : hurry, fountain, clover, yawn, pool, steam, 
 decayed tooth, wind, rooster, whistle. 
 
 2. (heard by observer) : plunge, bell, breathing, spool, ice, flutter, 
 skate, fish, owl, crush. 
 
 Observer No. 1, who was chosen to figure in a special way in 
 the latter part of the experiments, was given an additional test 
 several days after the first one. Both tests were given in the 
 padded cabinet, with the following list of words for the second 
 test:
 
 110 APPENDIX II 
 
 1. (read by observer): dynamite, syllable, splash, coffee, swift, 
 lion, thrash, bumble-bee, plaster, salt. 
 
 2. (heard by observer): storm, waltz, apple-tree, rain-drops, 
 health, lemonade, drum, sea-gull, donkey, splinter. 
 
 V. Unit-accuracy simple form: 
 
 Task: To reproduce at once, as the unit of a regular series last- 
 ing for fifteen seconds, an interval given by two clicks of the 
 sounder in connection with the time-sense machine. Observer 
 to hold himself in readiness for an interval of any size between one 
 fifth of a second and two seconds, adjusting himself as quickly as 
 he can, so that the interval between the last click of the sounder 
 and his first tap shall be as close as possible in size to the stimulus 
 interval he is attempting to reproduce. The signals are: "Close 
 your eyes!" "Ready!", "Now!", and "Stop!". 
 
 1. Preliminary: E (experimenter) produces rough .2 sec. interval 
 by moving bar across one of the contacts twice. (observer) 
 begins at once to tap on key till E says "Stop! " 
 
 2. Preliminary: E produces rough 2 sec. interval. O reproduces 
 in the form of a series, according to directions. 
 
 3. Regular: O is instructed to be prepared for any length of inter- 
 val between the limits assigned. Immediately after "Now!" 
 sounder connected with time-sense machine produces .2 sec. 
 interval as the standard. O taps series for fifteen seconds. 
 
 4. Regular: Time-sense machine (tsm) produces .7 sec. as a stand- 
 ard. O taps series. 
 
 (The apparatus is provided with a switch, cutting off the sounder 
 from the mercury contacts until the revolving bar has attained its 
 normal speed.) 
 
 VI. Subjective rhythm: (metronome in padded box) 
 
 1. Involuntary: 
 
 (a) No suggestion: 
 
 Instruction: "You are going to hear a series of sounds for 
 about forty-five seconds. When it is over you are to dictate a 
 brief account of your state of consciousness during the series 
 what you hear, how it affects you, etc." 
 
 Signals: "Close your eyes!", "Ready!", "Now!", "All- 
 right!". 
 
 Metronome at .3 sec. (approx.) for forty-five seconds. 
 
 O dictates introspection. 
 (6) With suggestion of grouping idea:
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 111 
 
 Instruction: "Describe as exactly as you can the relative 
 duration and intensity of the sounds you are about to hear. 
 Notice whether the series appears to be a succession of per- 
 fectly even sounds, or whether any particular form of grouping 
 is evident." 
 
 (1) Metronome at .8 sec. (approx.) for forty-five seconds. 
 O dictates introspection. 
 
 (2) Metronome at .3 sec. (approx.) for forty-five seconds. 
 O dictates introspection. 
 
 2. Voluntary: 
 
 Metronome at .3 sec. O to close eyes and raise finger as 
 soon as he has clearly established (by imposition) the follow- 
 ing groupings: 
 (a) 3's 
 (5) 5's 
 
 (O's No. 1, 2, and 3 were also tested for 2's, 7's, and ll's 
 in voluntary rhythm and for additional rates of .5 sec. and .8 
 sec. for involuntary rhythm.) 
 
 VII. Acceleration experiment (test for "swing"): (tsm, kymo, metr) 
 
 Task: To hear a series of regular intervals given by a metronome 
 (at .7 sec.) until a subordinate second beat has been felt (subjec- 
 tively) between every two beats of the metronome. If O finds 
 this difficult he is asked to say to himself the word "Top" (with 
 distinct enunciation of the final consonant) each time he hears 
 the click of the metronome. The letter "p" thus marks the sec- 
 ondary beat required. As soon as this transformation of the beats 
 of the metronome into a series of subjective bars or groups of 
 two is either attained or found to be impossible, the experiment 
 proceeds at once. 
 
 O is to hear from the tsm sounder a series of six intervals, 
 marked by seven clicks. He understands that the first of these 
 intervals is the same which he has been subjectively cutting in 
 two during the beats of the metronome. He also understands 
 that the succeeding five intervals are faster or slower variations 
 of the standard interval, and that it is his task to catch the pro- 
 gression in speed, whether positive or negative, and reproduce it 
 by a series of seven taps upon the key connected with the kymo- 
 graph. He has been told the reason for imaging a secondary after- 
 beat for each click; i.e., the after-beat is to prevent him from 
 instinctively regarding the series of six intervals as a rhythmic 
 group of long and short intervals bearing relations of simple
 
 112 APPENDIX II 
 
 proportion to each other, instead of as a series of accelerating and 
 retarding values of the standard interval. The need of these 
 precautions was determined by preliminary experiments. 
 
 After E is convinced, by signals or otherwise, that O is able to 
 regard the metronome series as a succession of bars or that the 
 achievement is in his particular case an impossibility (which did 
 not occur in the course of the experiments), the metronome is 
 stopped, and after the lapse of a few seconds, the time-sense 
 machine produces the series of six intervals, arranged according 
 to the following progression: .7 sec., .6 sec., .5 sec., .5 sec., .6 sec., .7 
 sec., in other words, an acceleration of the standard interval up 
 to a momentary level of .5 sec., followed by a retardation back to 
 the standard interval. This series is given by tsm three times, 
 with an interval of about four seconds between. After the third 
 time, O first images what he has just heard, then taps upon his 
 key, to the best of his ability, a reproduction of the six intervals. 
 
 Immediately after this, O announces "a" or "b" degree of 
 confidence in having expressed his feeling of the swing of R (the 
 series of intervals as given by tsm). Eight such reproductions are 
 recorded, after every two of which O chooses one as the "better" 
 of the two, or at any rate his "choice" for purposes of measure- 
 ment. 
 
 E's procedure in measurement is determined as follows: In 
 any case, only the four reproductions judged as "better" are to 
 be measured, and the two most approximately accurate, selected 
 for the later continuation of the experiment; but precedence is 
 given in this choice to those of the four "better" reproductions 
 which are also marked with an "a" (degree of confidence). If 
 three or more "a's" occur, the two most accurate are taken; if 
 only two "a's" occur they are taken, irrespective of measurement; 
 otherwise, the one "a" that occurs and the most accurate "b," 
 or, if no "a's" occur, the two most accurate "b's." The two re- 
 productions thus selected are kept, after being measured, for 
 the second day, when O is given a chance to hear them reproduced 
 by tsm and to compare them with the original series in both 
 orders of tune, according to the suggestion derived from Muller's 
 Methodik. 1 
 
 The acceleration experiment (first day) is concluded as follows: 
 Tsm gives R again three times. At every click of the machine 
 O murmurs "Top" aloud, adjusting his "top's" as well as he can 
 
 Miiller, op. cit. p. 205.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 113 
 
 to the clicks of the sounder, with the attempt to utter the final 
 "p" each time as a secondary beat between the clicks. After he 
 has thus accompanied R three times, he records as before his 
 memory of R, uttering "top" again each time that he taps his 
 key. Finally, he is told to keep R in mind for future experiment. 
 
 Schedule syncopation: (metr and kymo) 
 
 O listens to metr at .5 sec. interval for ten seconds; then, after 
 the regular signals, taps according to schedule, omitting a tap 
 where the schedule contains a zero, and substituting for it a sub- 
 jective beat, in such a way as to approximate as closely as pos- 
 sible to the standard interval, as given by the metronome, in the 
 execution of his recorded taps and the subjective beats inter- 
 polated. 
 
 1. Preliminary: taps 0"0 OO'O O'OO '00', etc. (repeated) for 
 twenty seconds. 
 
 2. Regular: O taps same schedule for twenty seconds. 
 
 IX. Complex coordination, involving unit accuracy: (metr, kymo, foot- 
 
 key) 
 
 O to accompany metr at .5 sec. and follow schedule. 
 RF = right foot rf = right finger 
 
 LF - left foot If = left finger 
 
 "Ta" and "clo" are to be uttered where they occur in the 
 schedule, and taps by feet or fingers omitted. Time is given for 
 O to understand schedule thoroughly, then metronome is started, 
 and after the usual signals from E, O begins. 
 
 1. Preliminary: O accompanies metr according to the following 
 schedule: RF rf If "ta," LF rf If "clo," etc. (repeated) 
 for twenty seconds. 
 
 2. Regular: O follows same schedule for twenty seconds. 
 
 X. Walking-rate, etc. (rough): 
 
 O is asked to walk up and down the main hall of the building 
 until he has attained what he considers a normal, comfortable 
 walking gait, such as he would fall into if he were walking for 
 pleasure. He is to keep up this gait, as far as he is able, when he 
 reenters the laboratory, where his rate is measured by E with a 
 stop-watch, according to the number of steps he takes within 
 thirty seconds. 
 
 Similarly, O is asked to nod with his head, tap with his finger, 
 sway with his hips from side to side as he stands erect, and fi- 
 nally to utter the syllable "ta," at what he considers comfortable
 
 114 APPENDIX II 
 
 rates, such as he would find easy to keep up for some time. Each 
 of the rates is determined by counting the number of movements 
 made within a stretch of ten seconds. O is also asked to specify 
 which of the above measured forms of motion he prefers. Longer 
 tests would, of course, be more accurate. 
 
 XI. Pitch memory (rough): (Stern variator): 
 
 O hears a tone from the variator at a certain pitch. It is given 
 three times, with a duration of about one second and an interval 
 of about one second. Then comes an interval of about three 
 seconds, after which ten notes are sounded, three of them at the 
 original pitch and the rest above or below it. O is asked to iden- 
 tify the position of the notes corresponding to the original stimulus 
 on a blank schedule which is given to him. 
 
 1. Preliminary: Instructions accompanying schedule: 
 
 "The following ten spaces correspond to the series of ten 
 notes you will hear, after the original R has been given three 
 tunes. This original R will occur altogether three times in 
 the series. Mark the spaces where you think it occurs with 
 anR." 
 
 Schedule: 
 
 In giving R and the subsequent series E's schedule is as follows: 
 R = 240 (given three times) 
 
 Series: 241 239 240 242 238 240 237 240 243 239 
 
 2. Regular: A similar procedure is followed except that O hears 
 the giving of the stimulus and the subsequent series repeated 
 as a whole three times. During each time he marks upon a 
 schedule the places where he thinks R occurs. A final line of 
 ten blank spaces occurs upon the schedule on which he is to 
 record his final revision of judgment, for which he is given 
 twenty seconds. 
 
 E's schedule: R = 250 
 
 Series: 247 260 253 260 252 248 250 255 252 248 
 O's No. 1, 2, and 3 were also given the following test with 
 a broader range. R occurred once in five. 
 E's schedule: R = 275. 
 
 Series: (a) 270 300 280 270 276 
 (6) 250 280 276 285 270 
 (c) 300 250 285 276 280 
 
 XII. Harmony memory, (rough): (tunable reed-organ) 
 
 O is to recognize where a given chord occurs in a series of ten. 
 He is supplied with schedule blanks as before.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 115 
 
 1. Preliminary: R - c g c' e' (c being middle c; c', the octave 
 above). 
 
 Series: bgb'e' c#gc#V cgc'e' bg#b'e' cgc'e' bg#b'e' c#gc'e' 
 bgb'e' bg#b'e' cgc'e' 
 
 2. Regular: R=b#d#g#b' 
 
 Series: bd#gb' bd#f#b' bdgb^ begb' bd#f#b' begb' bdgb' bd#gb' 
 bd#f#b' bdgb' 
 
 Xin. Vowel-quality memory, (rough) : 
 
 E chants vowels at low C. O is to identify a certain group of 
 vowel sounds, containing five discrete members, as it occurs in a 
 series of five such groups. Schedules are used as before. 
 
 1. Preliminary: R - ee ay ee oo oh (rate of about two vowels 
 per second, given three times, 1.5 sec. interval) 
 
 Series: ee ee ay oh oo 
 
 oh ay ee oo oh 
 
 ee ay ee oo oh 
 
 ee ay ee oh oo 
 
 oo ee ay oo oh 
 
 (1.5 sec. interval between groups, 10 seconds at end for 
 checking) 
 
 2. Regular: 
 
 (a) R - ah ay ee oo oh (given three times) 
 
 Series: ah ay oo ee oh 
 
 ay oo ee ay oo 
 
 ay ah oo ay oh 
 
 ah ay ee oo oh 
 
 ay ah ee oh oo 
 
 (6) R - ay ee ay ah ee 
 
 Series: ah ee ee ah ay 
 
 ah ee ay ah ee 
 
 ay ee ay ah ee 
 
 ay ee ah ee ay 
 
 ah ee ay ah ee 
 (c) R - oo oh oh ah oo 
 
 Series: oh oo oo ah oh 
 
 oo oh oh oo ah 
 
 oo ah oh oh oo 
 
 ah oh oh ah oo 
 
 oo oh oh ah oo
 
 116 APPENDIX II 
 
 (Second Day) 
 
 XIV. Choice of "swing" reproductions: (tsm) 
 
 O's two reproductions selected from the first day's measurements 
 are referred to as 1 and 2; the original six intervals, as given by 
 the machine, are referred to as R. 
 
 E sets contacts for R, then for 1; then for R again, and then 
 for 2. O hears all four with closed eyes, being instructed to com- 
 pare 1 and 2, as he hears them in this order, with the original 
 stimulus. An interval of about thirty seconds occurs between 
 every two series of clicks that he hears. 
 
 E now sets contacts first for 1, and then for R; then for 2, 
 and then for R again. O makes a final choice between 1 and 2, 
 as to which comes closer to his feeling for the "swing" of R. 
 
 O is asked not to practise for a week his memory of R, either by 
 tapping or with the voice, but to be ready at the expiration of 
 that time to utter, by means of seven consecutive "tops," his 
 memory of it. This reproduction, spoken in the sound-photo- 
 graphing cabinet, will be recorded on the film. 
 
 XV. Intensity memory (rough) : (sound-pendulum) 
 
 O hears a stimulus intensity, roughly produced by the blow of 
 a pendulum, weighted with a ball of metal at the end, falling 
 through a certain distance upon a piece of stationary metal. He 
 is then asked to identify its triple recurrence in a series of ten 
 such impacts. Five degrees of intensity (rough) are produced by 
 allowing the sound-pendulum to fall from positions of varying 
 height. In the present test, which was meant to be nothing more 
 than suggestive, the pendulum was allowed to fall from these 
 five positions by the right hand of E. His left hand was used to 
 catch the pendulum on its rebound. The sound-pendulum appara- 
 tus was encased in a box lined with heavy felt, in order to prevent 
 as much reflection of sound as possible. O first heard the five 
 intensities given in order, beginning with the weakest. After a 
 pause of a few seconds, E gave the stimulus intensity three times, 
 about two seconds apart. Then, after a pause of about three 
 seconds, the series was given. A soundless pendulum was in 
 sight of E, to assist in determining the pauses. The sounds in the 
 series were given about two seconds apart. The following is 
 E's schedule, in which 1 represents the weakest intensity; 5, the 
 strongest. 
 
 Stimulus or standard intensity: 3 (given three times) 
 Series: 4253432135
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 117 
 
 XVI. Drum-beat rhythm of texts: 
 
 Three sentences, marked A, B, and C, were used in this ex- 
 periment: 
 
 A. De Quincey, "Our Lady of Darkness," from Confessions of 
 
 an English Opium-Eater, Masson's edition of De Quincey's 
 works, London, 1890, Vol. XIII, p. 368: 
 
 "For she can approach only those in whom a profound 
 nature has been upheaved by central convulsions; in whom 
 the heart trembles and the brain rocks under conspiracies of 
 tempest from without and tempest from within." 
 
 B. Newman, "Grammar of Assent," Longmans, Green, & Co., 
 
 1909, p. 78: 
 
 "Then he comes to understand how it is that lines, the 
 birth of some chance morning or evening at an Ionian festi- 
 val, or among the Sabine hills, have lasted generation after 
 generation, for thousands of years with a power over the mind, 
 and a charm which the current literature of his own day, 
 with all its obvious advantages, is utterly unable to rival." 
 
 C. Pater, "Leonardo da Vinci," from The Renaissance, Mac- 
 
 Millan's ed., London, 1914, p. 110: 
 
 "He who thus penetrated into the most secret parts of 
 nature preferred always the more to the less remote, what, 
 seeming exceptional, was an instance of law more refined, the 
 construction about things of a peculiar atmosphere and 
 mixed lights." 
 
 E gives the three sentences to O with a word or two of expla- 
 nation of the connection in which they were written, but with no 
 information as to the author or the name of the essay or book in 
 which they occur. O glances over A, B, and C, and dictates a 
 brief account of what he considers to be the quality of each with 
 regard to mood (as stormy, calm, solemn, gay, poetic, matter-of- 
 fact, etc.); thought (simple, complex, etc.); and, finally, vowel 
 and consonant color (dark, light, or mixed; smooth, rugged, or 
 mixed; etc.). 
 
 O then beats on the phosphor-bronze drum (not more than 
 three times) the syllabic rhythm of A, B, and C, as he reads them 
 to himself. After the first drum-beating he is to pass judgment on 
 his own performance, so that, as far as possible he may be able 
 to answer the following questions: How would the series of drum- 
 beats you have just performed affect you, if you heard someone 
 else beating it upon a drum, and had no idea of its being connected 
 with a passage of prose? If it would interest you, can you say
 
 118 APPENDIX II 
 
 why? If not, can you say why? Does your drum-beating fall 
 into parts? If so, are they related? 
 
 O then grades A, B, and C, with units (3 = high, 2 = moderate, 
 1 - low) in respect to three different qualities: 
 
 1. Fitness of form (rhythm and tone-color) with regard to con- 
 tent (mood and thought); 
 
 2. Ease and spontaneity of rhythmic flow; 
 
 3. Complexity of thought and mood problem (O is to grade as 
 "low" a sentence in which it would appear to be an easy task 
 to find fitting rhythm for the underlying thought and feeling, 
 if one were the author). 
 
 O then adds a grade of 3, 2, or 1 (in this case units of rela- 
 tive order), with respect to the pleasure he derives from the 
 drum-beat rhythm of each of the sentences. 
 
 XVII. " Possibility " scanning: 
 
 O's No. 1, 2, and 3 were the only ones that took part in this 
 experiment. They were asked to scan texts A, B, and C of the 
 previous experiment upon the following basis: 
 
 Each syllable and pause, felt as such, is to be marked with 
 units (3 = high, 2 = moderate, 1 = low) of "possible" intensity, 
 "possible" pitch, "possible" duration, and "possible" additional 
 weight or interest, due either to thought and mood or to details 
 of tone-color, etc. "Possible" is understood to mean also "prob- 
 able" that is, it includes the degrees of these four qualities 
 which the observer can easily imagine himself as attaining under 
 different moods. The object of this experiment is to determine 
 the safety or danger of announcing any one scanning of a passage 
 as an indication of its final "rhythmic" value. 
 
 (Third Day, one week after Second Day) 
 
 XVIII. Pulse consciousness: 
 
 O 'sits in the dark, inside of the padded cabinet, in a relaxed 
 position. At a signal from E, there begins a stretch of forty sec- 
 onds, at the end of which O is to report whether he was conscious 
 at all of his heart-beats or of pulse-beats in any part of his body. 
 
 XIX. Breath-segments: 
 
 O is now asked the following question: "Do you ever think of 
 your breath as divided into parts in any way?" 
 
 O is asked to breathe for thirty seconds and report again. He 
 is then asked more definitely if he thinks of his inspirations as
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 119 
 
 bearing a simple mathematical relation to his expirations, or, 
 rather, as bearing a vague relation to each other. 
 
 XX. Photograph of seven-day-memory reproduction of acceleration 
 series: 
 
 O is reminded that the stimulus consisted of seven clicks, in- 
 volving acceleration and retarding. They are to be reproduced, 
 in as exact a manner as possible, by uttering the word "top" 
 seven times. The final consonant in "top" is to be pronounced 
 distinctly so as to cut the intervals approximately in hah". O is 
 to hear, for about ten seconds, a metronome beating regularly the 
 first interval of the series. He has no information except his 
 memory as to the extent of acceleration and retarding to which 
 this interval was subjected in the original series. He first makes a 
 preliminary trial, after which his next reproduction is regularly 
 photographed. 
 
 XXI. Judgment and line-division: 
 
 O is given a card on which are drawn three lines, 60 mm. in 
 length. The first two are for practice; upon the third, O is to 
 indicate a division of the space into six intervals, corresponding 
 in their relations to the intervals in the standard acceleration 
 series. He is then asked to report his judgment as to the general 
 relations which these intervals bear to each other: a is greater 
 than b, b is greater than c, c is equal to d, etc. 
 
 (Fourth Day) 
 
 XXII. Simple syncopation: 
 
 Six of the mercury contacts of the time-sense machine are set 
 at a distance of 60 degrees from each other, so that a continuous 
 series of clicks from the sounder are produced at an interval of 
 .66 sec. These successive clicks are recorded upon the smoked 
 drum. Any clicks made by O, when he taps upon his key, are 
 recorded in a line parallel to the first. In this way, when the 
 lines are viewed horizontally, O's record is directly under that of 
 the standard clicks. 
 
 O is instructed to begin tapping, after the signal "now," just 
 halfway between the taps of the sounder, and continue this form 
 of syncopation until he hears (after fifteen seconds) the signal for 
 stopping. His task is, of course, to tap just .33 sec. after each tap 
 of the sounder; so his individual taps are measured from a point 
 on his record-line directly under a tap-record on the standard 
 line, and rated according to how they correspond to the distance
 
 120 APPENDIX II 
 
 on the drum representing .33 sec. In this way, his first ten taps 
 are taken; their distances from the measuring points just de- 
 scribed, averaged; and thus their Gross Constant Error and Aver- 
 age Variable Error, determined. One preliminary test is given. 
 
 XXIII. Reaction to five's and seven's: 
 
 E watches soundless pendulum marking seconds, and taps 
 groups of five's on the phosphor-bronze drum at the rate of five 
 taps to two swings of the pendulum. The first tap of each group 
 is accented. Similar procedure for seven's. 
 
 Instruction: "Listen to the following series of sounds, and raise 
 your finger when you have clearly established the nature of what- 
 ever motor reaction, if any, they produce. Note also, as carefully 
 as you can after this, whatever phenomena of muscle tension and 
 breath affection, if any, occur. This done, begin to inhibit as far 
 as you are able the motor reaction instituted, so that later you 
 may be able to grade it as 3, 2, or 1, with respect to difficulty hi 
 inhibiting. You will have about fifteen seconds for this after 
 raising your finger." 
 
 XXIV. Complex syncopation (involving regulated practice) : 
 
 The task is for O to tap groups of five's on his key, while the 
 tune-sense machine is clicking seven's. The contacts are set as 
 for simple syncopation so that the clicks will be .66 sec. apart. 
 The experiment is divided into six stages: 
 
 1. At every seventh click of the sounder E says "One!". At 
 E's third "One!". O is to begin quite roughly, tapping, as 
 well as he can, five equal taps between E's "One's. " He is thus 
 tapping five against seven. This continues for ten seconds. 
 
 2. E now taps upon the phosphor-bronze drum an approxima- 
 tion of the way the two sets of clicks should sound when played 
 together. In order to do this, E has practised the task for 
 several months, until he is able to do it in more or less of an 
 automatic fashion. As he taps this "rhythmic tune" upon 
 the drum, he counts aloud as follows, giving numbers for the 
 seven's and saying "and" for the five's (on "one," of course, 
 the two coincide): 
 
 "One, two-and, three, and-four, five-and, six, and-seven." 
 The "and" between two and three is closer to two than it is 
 to three and so, the "and" between six and seven is closer to 
 seven; but the "and's" just before four and just after five are 
 exactly twice as close to their respective numbers as the first 
 pair.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 121 
 
 O now taps his five's as before, but counts aloud as he taps, 
 uttering numbers for the taps of the machine and saying "and" 
 for his own taps. E still marks off every seventh click of the 
 machine by saying "One!", O having begun upon his third 
 "One!". 
 
 3. E now explains a black and white chart hanging on the wall, 
 which is meant to indicate the effect (in terms of space, mathe- 
 matically divided), of superimposing five intervals upon seven. 
 E counts as before, following with a pointer the spaces on the 
 chart. He odds, however, a simple humming tune to the count- 
 ing, so that two bars of the five-seven syncopation form an easily 
 remembered melody. O is asked to do likewise, accompanying 
 E, until the two-bar melody has been hummed three times. O 
 is also asked to tap with his left hand for the seven's, and with 
 his right on a dead key for the five's. 
 
 4. O is now instructed to be ready for another trial, the results 
 of which are to be recorded on the drum. E hums, counts, 
 and beats with a pointer the rhythmic melody once more, and 
 then starts the serial clicks of the time-sense machine. O is 
 expected to begin as soon as he is comfortably ready, and to 
 tap five's to the machine's seven's, counting and humming the 
 rhythmic tune. E no longer marks off the groups. This is 
 accomplished by O's first tap, which starts the syncopating 
 group. 
 
 O is to continue his syncopation until stopped by signal 
 from E at the end of fifteen seconds. In the meantime, O is 
 expected to tap off the clicks of the machine with his left finger 
 on the table, while he makes recorded taps of five's, with his 
 right. He is no longer expected to think of himself as tapping 
 five's against seven's, but as tapping the tune he has heard, 
 with the accents (numbers) assigned to his left hand and the 
 unaccented "and's" to his right. Both, of course, come down 
 together on "One." 
 
 5. O is now instructed to watch E, and, in at least an incipient 
 form, imitate everything he does. E then, as he hums the 
 rhythmic melody, taps the seven's with his left index-finger 
 and the five's with his right; and follows this with a perform- 
 ance in which all the fingers of both hands are used. There- 
 upon he performs a sort of rhythmic step, divided into two 
 phrases of seven, at the same time that he executes with his 
 arms two phrases of five. While he is doing this, O is asked to 
 place his hands upon his knees, and beat five's while he taps
 
 122 APPENDIX II 
 
 seven's with his feet. No record is kept of these tentative 
 performances. 
 
 O then prepares for another trial at tapping on his key. 
 After the machine is in motion, he is to begin as before, at a 
 comfortable moment, humming the rhythmic tune while he 
 taps. This lasts for fifteen seconds. 
 
 6. O makes his last record, but this time with his eyes closed, and 
 without humming aloud. This record is the one according to 
 which he is graded. The correct length of interval (.936 sec.) 
 for a fifth of the time covered by seven clicks of the machine, 
 is taken as the standard which he is to approach. Accordingly, 
 the average of his first five intervals is estimated, and the GCE 
 and AVE determined. Certain slight variations occurred in 
 the procedure as applied to O's No. 3, 4, 10, and 12, but not 
 enough to vitiate the results. 
 
 XXV. Individual "swing": 
 
 O is expected to tap the marked centroids in the following 
 arrangement of words: 
 
 ****** * 
 
 "Prose is prose prose is prose prose is prose while poetry 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 is opposed to prose, prose-poetry is opposed to any poetry that 
 
 * * 
 
 may be composed in any other way than that of prose." 
 
 Instruction: "Read the following arrangement of words in 
 what you consider a perfectly natural manner ' letting yourself 
 go' as much as possible. Tap only when you utter the o-sounds 
 marked with an asterisk above them." O is expected to practise 
 the task until he feels able to carry out the above with ease. The 
 record of his tapping is made upon the smoked drum. 
 
 XXVI. Musical " swing " : 
 
 O is asked to tap upon the kymograph key, while he hums to 
 himself the first few bars of "My Country 'tis of thee." The taps 
 are to represent, as far as possible, what considers his natural 
 rendering of the time-relations of the melody. 
 
 XXVH. Phonograph test: 
 
 After most of the results of the previous tests had been deter- 
 mined, O No. 1, whose rank in the tests was fairly high, was chosen 
 to make drum-beat records on the phonograph for the rest of the 
 observers to pass judgment upon. Records were made, accordingly, 
 from five different sources and presented to the other observers
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 123 
 
 in the form of a series, which they heard reproduced from the 
 phonograph. Two short passages of prose, one of regular music, 
 one of haphazard word arrangement, and one of haphazard musical 
 notes, were tapped by O No. 1 upon the phosphor-bronze drum, 
 as a source for the five records. 
 
 First in the series was the following passage from Walter Pater 
 (op. cit. p. Ill): 
 
 "It is the landscape, not of dreams or of fancy, but of places 
 far withdrawn, and hours selected from a thousand with a miracle 
 of finesse." 
 
 Second in the series was the passage of about six bars from 
 Chopin, Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 1. 
 
 Third: part of a sentence from Henry James, Preface to The 
 Golden Bowl, p. xxiv: 
 
 "For I have nowhere found vindicated the queer thesis that the 
 right values of interesting prose depend all on withheld tests." 
 
 Fourth: a haphazard arrangement of seventeen words chosen 
 in the following manner: Every other word in the first paragraph 
 of Seashore's description of the Tonoscope (University of Iowa 
 Studies in Psychology, No. VI) was written upon a separate slip 
 of paper, and the slips thoroughly shuffled. Twenty slips were 
 drawn by a person with closed eyes, and the words arranged in the 
 order of drawing. Three words at the end were then dropped, 
 in order to bring the time of reading of the series into closer approxi- 
 mation of equality with the time required to read the regular 
 prose sentences. The result was as follows: 
 
 "Instruments description the from crude now psychology un- 
 touched essential described a the in fact pleasure instruments 
 manipulation." 
 
 Fifth: a haphazard arrangement of musical notes, chosen by a 
 blindfolded person from 144 possibilities (permutations and com- 
 binations of long and short notes and long and short rests). 
 
 None of the observers were given any sort of information as 
 to what sources had been employed in obtaining the five records. 
 The instructions were as follows: 
 
 "Listen, without screwing up your attention too much, to the 
 following five series of drum-beats. Keep yourself in a partly 
 relaxed condition, in order to respond as freely as possible to any 
 effect they may have upon you. Be prepared to grade the five
 
 124 APPENDIX II 
 
 series in relative order of merit as pleasing. You will then grade 
 them again as 'elusive' or puzzling." 
 
 After O hears the reproduction of the series upon the phono- 
 graph, the grades are recorded upon a schedule blank provided. 
 The five sets of taps, of course, simply represent O No. 1's inter- 
 pretation of the tasks assigned. E had given O No. 1 five 
 schedules to follow in the order prescribed, with the instruction to 
 tap, in a perfectly natural manner, the duration and intensity of 
 the notes and syllables as felt. According to these instructions, 
 for instance, the word "hours" was tapped as two syllables. 
 
 After this first hearing of the series and after the recording of 
 the grades O is asked: "Did it occur to you while listening to any 
 one of the series to beat time to it (by nodding, tapping, etc.), 
 in other words, to respond to it with any form of regular motor 
 accompaniment? Did the idea of syncopation occur to you?" 
 
 Before the second hearing of the series, O is instructed as follows: 
 "See if you can beat strict time, with a degree of satisfaction, to 
 any of the series. Be prepared to grade the five with units (3, 2, 
 or 1) for ease and satisfaction in this respect." At the end of the 
 phonograph reproduction, O is asked if he felt any effects of 
 syncopation. 
 
 Before the third hearing of the drum-beats, the instructions 
 are: "Keep the possibilities of syncopation in mind, and see also 
 if there are any of the five arrangements of sounds to which you 
 can, with a degree of satisfaction, beat a less strict time-unit 
 that is, one which accelerates or retards within the limits of what 
 strikes you as merely an appropriate adjustment, with just such 
 liberty as you could enjoy in regular music." 
 
 Schedules are provided on which O grades the five series, aa 
 directed. 
 
 Before the fourth hearing, O is told that regular prose is the 
 source of two of the series of drum-beats; regular music, hap- 
 hazard words, and haphazard music, the sources of the other 
 three. He is asked to mark upon a schedule provided, his judg- 
 ment as to which is which. He is also to grade each judgment 
 with "a," "b," or "c" degree of certainty. After that he is once 
 more to grade the five in relative order: first, as pleasing; and 
 second, as elusive. 
 XXVIII. Questionnaire: 
 
 1. Do you clearly understand the possibilities of syncopation in 
 connection with motor response to a series of drum-beats? 
 (E explains the subject, in case of a negative response.)
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 125 
 
 2. Do you enjoy its introduction, or do you usually resent it? 
 
 3. Do you understand the possibilities of acceleration and re- 
 tarding? Describe their effect upon you in the "swing" 
 experiment. 
 
 4. Would a certain amount of acceleration or retarding in a 
 series of drum-beats add any possible interest to the series? 
 Could you think of its adding great interest? 
 
 5. Do you take pleasure at all in the idea of making equivalences 
 or substitutions rather than simple balancings of two equal 
 masses against each other? Does the idea of weighing a pound 
 of lead, small in size, against a pound of feathers, large in size, 
 interest you aesthetically? 
 
 6. What sort of motor response would you most enjoy making to 
 a series of sounds that impressed you as in any way rhythmical? 
 Would the response be segregated or serial? 
 
 7. If a series possessed merely an elusive charm, hard to analyze, 
 just how can you imagine yourself as responding? 
 
 8. Can you imagine yourself as taking pleasure at all in a series 
 of "unitary" pulses (not grouped into two's and three's, etc.)? 
 
 9. If each of these pulse intervals were filled in with varying 
 numbers of smaller intervals, without blurring the larger, 
 dominant pulses, would it add interest or detract? 
 
 XXIX. Schedule tests 
 
 A. Drum-beat series No. 5: 
 
 O listens again to phonograph reproduction of drum-beat 
 series No. 5 (haphazard music), and states its effect upon him 
 (pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent). O has not yet been 
 told in any way that it is haphazard music. 
 
 E now gives O a schedule, recording one of E's own forms of 
 organization of this objectively irregular series: 
 
 Schedule I: 2 000' "000000 O'O' 00 '0 'O'O O'OO '0" 
 *000 *000 *000 *000 *000 *000 *000 *000 
 
 This is a way of counting four-time (rapidly) to the series. 
 The lower line represents the counts, and the upper line the 
 way in which the beats in the record can be regarded as falling 
 into the system. Each beat is marked by an accent. Three 
 chief accents are also indicated. 
 
 E explains the schedule, then taps it on the phosphor-bronze 
 drum, humming a simple tune as he taps. This is done three 
 
 1 The schedule actually employed was very slightly different, but 
 was not quite so clear as the above. The difference is unessential.
 
 126 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 B. 
 
 times. O listens to the phonograph reproduction, and attempts 
 to fit the schedule to the beats, with his own motor response 
 as a test of his success. He next reports to what extent his 
 interest in the record has been affected by using the schedule. 
 He also reports upon the effect of E's having hummed the tune. 
 
 Schedule II: 00' "0 000 "' '" 
 
 *00 *00 *00 *00 *00 *00 
 (fast) (slower) (faster) 
 
 E explains, beats on drum, and hums tune as before, three 
 times. Then O listens to the record again, and reports on the 
 effect of this schedule upon his interest. The two schedules 
 are then graded, in relative order of merit, in this respect. 
 Drum-beat series No. 1 : 
 
 O listens to record No. 1 (Walter Pater), without being told 
 its origin, states his interest, and then receives schedules, 
 which he employs, as with record No. 5. 
 
 Schedule I: 
 
 accel. 
 
 rit. 
 
 - *- 
 
 LJ a \\' t 
 
 * o o # o o 
 
 occeZ. 
 
 yar g c 
 
 
 
 rit. 
 
 1 
 
 37^-=- 
 
 . a 
 
 o o * o o * o 
 
 Schedule II: 
 
 accel. rit. 
 
 A _ A~~ 
 
 / ^ 
 o o 
 
 _ -V 1 _ f 1 
 
 LJ af i/ tf a a^ 
 
 #00 
 
 f^Tt 
 
 * 
 
 * o o 
 accel. 
 
 A 
 
 2 
 
 8 * 
 
 hb'&kU" 5 J 
 
 * 
 
 FIGURE 1. Rhythmic Schedules used in connection with the sentence 
 from Walter Pater 
 
 O grades the schedules, and reports as before.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 127 
 
 XXX. Questionnaire: 
 
 1. Did you at any point enjoy, or can you think of enjoying, 
 record No. 1's rhythm without any motor response at all? 
 
 2. Can you think of any comfortable or satisfying motor response 
 except beating time in some way? 
 
 3. Can you conceive of any possible way of beating time to the 
 rhythm of a prose passage (without distorting the natural 
 grouping of the words) except on the basis of an elastic under- 
 unit, accelerating and retarding according to the mood? 
 
 4. When small groups of beats recur, either as exact echoes and 
 suggestions of echoes, or obvious inversions and suggestions of 
 inversions, irrespective of a time-unit, can you respond to 
 them by a motor reaction with so high a degree of pleasure as 
 when such groups recur in some recognizable connection with 
 a time-unit? 
 
 XXXI. Unitary music : (first test) 
 
 Instruction: "Listen to the following series of beats with closed 
 eyes, and state how it affects you." 
 
 E beats on drum the rhythm of bars six, seven, and eight (plus) 
 of The Temple of Memphis, by Cyril Scott, after which O is 
 asked whether or not he felt the recurrence of any time-interval 
 throughout the series. E then instructs O to be ready to answer 
 the following questions, after a second hearing: 
 
 1. (same question about the time-unit) 
 
 2. Did you respond with a motor reaction? 
 
 3. Did you notice that any group of the time-interval was repeated 
 in a series? 
 
 4. Did you notice the subdivision of a dominating time-unit into 
 groupings of two, three, four, etc? 
 
 5. State again how the drum-beats affect you. 
 
 XXXII. Unitary pulses : 
 
 Instruction: "Take your favorite type of motor reaction and 
 continue it, at a rate which seems pleasant to you, for about ten 
 seconds." 
 
 Question: "Did you think of the series of motions you made as 
 in any way divided into groups?" 
 
 A negative answer means the presence of unitary pulses. 
 
 XXXIII. Unitary music : (second test) 
 
 E beats last five bars (tempo alone) of page 1 of The Temple 
 of Memphis, and then asks the following questions: 
 1. What was the effect upon you?
 
 128 APPENDIX II 
 
 2. Did the arrangement of beats in groups of varying size destroy 
 your feeling that there was a unit to the series? 
 
 3. Did the variety in size of these groups add or detract interest 
 from the series? 
 
 E instructs O to keep the last two questions in mind, and 
 listen to the beats again. After a second report from O, E 
 shows the text of the music to him and explains what is meant 
 by the "unitary" basis. 
 XXXIV. Factors in organizing drum-beat series : 
 
 Instruction: "After hearing record No. 1 again, you will be 
 asked: To what extent do the following suppositions assist or not 
 assist in your case, to explain, or render less puzzling, elusive im- 
 pressions of rhythm in prose beats such as you have just heard: 
 
 1. An elastic under-unit of time (accelerating and retarding), re- 
 curring in a series of similar groups, such as two's, three's, 
 four's, five's, etc.? 
 
 2. The possibility of changing back and forth from a series of 
 units grouped in two's, to a series grouped in three's, etc., as 
 occurs in regular music? (See Schedule II, section XXIX, B) 
 
 3. The possibilities of syncopation, as a means of correlating with 
 a time-unit what would otherwise be merely interfering ele- 
 ments? 
 
 4. The possibility of substituting for any unit-interval an equiva- 
 lent group of smaller intervals, varying freely and unexpectedly 
 in number from pulse to pulse, as occurred in the first experi- 
 ment with the music of Cyril Scott? (Spontaneous substitu- 
 tion) 
 
 5. The consideration of the time-unit as forming in its recurrence, 
 not necessarily a series of two's or of three's or of five's, but of 
 unitary pulses (more or less elastic), capable of grouping them- 
 selves into clusters of varying size, depending upon the repe- 
 tition of the unit itself, rather than upon the repetition of its 
 groupings, for the fundamental organizing influence (as occurred 
 in the second experiment with Cyril Scott)? 
 
 6. The imposition of a fictitious humming tune upon the series? 
 
 O then hears drum-beat record No. 1 (Walter Pater), after 
 which he grades the six hypothetical factors with units (3, 2, 1), 
 according to the degree in which each of them figures in what- 
 ever subjective organization of the series of drum-beats he 
 experiences.
 
 APPENDIX III 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
 
 The table of contents prefixed to Appendix II applies also to this 
 appendix, since the enumeration of results and brief comments upon 
 them are given in sections corresponding to the steps in the experi- 
 mental procedure. A large amount of material is included in the tab- 
 ulations of data, which is not discussed in the main text. Just as the 
 procedure was given almost in full, in order that whatever therein 
 needs to be criticized might be frankly disclosed, so here an opportu- 
 nity is afforded for careful sifting on the part of sufficiently interested 
 readers. Such a mass of varied material can hardly fail to contain 
 errors, of method or of computation or of statement. 
 
 Section I contains a rough description of the group of observers 
 who took part in the tests. Section vii applies to the sense of "swing"; 
 ix shows at the end the marked ability of Observer No. 7 to keep accu- 
 rate time, in spite of various disturbances; xxii and xxiv, the excel- 
 lence of No's. 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12, in tests concerned with simple and 
 complex syncopation. Toward the end of xxvii occurs the tabulation of 
 judgments passed upon the five phonograph records, among which 
 are listed the five judgments recorded by No. 7, who subjectively 
 organized each of the records into an impression of regular music, 
 xxxi, xxxii, and xxxiii furnish data with regard to unitary pulses, xxxiv 
 shows the large amount of difference among the observers with regard 
 to the subjective organization of haphazard series and the factors em- 
 ployed. It is of the greatest significance that No. 7 and No. 12, who 
 have evinced aggressively rhythmic tendencies, both grade syncopa- 
 tion high. No. 12 makes it the chief factor. 
 
 129
 
 130 APPENDIX III 
 
 (First Day) 
 I. Preliminary questionnaire : 
 
 Comparative estimates, obtained by grading answers with 
 rough units. 3 = high, 2 = moderate, 1 - low. 
 
 Observer No. 1 2 3 456 78 9 10 11 12 
 Rough estimate of musi- 
 cal training: 30 2 201 31 Oil 3 
 musical interest: 32 3 312 32 312 3 
 interest in rhythm: 31 3 200 32 111 3 
 int. in literary style: 32 2 321 30 210 2 
 int. in artistic technique: 22 3 310 30 110 1 
 vividness of auditory im- 
 agery: 31 2 211 32 201 3 
 amount of motor re- 
 sponse: 21 2 211 21 111 2 
 
 summary of rough units: 19 9 17 17 6 6 20 8 10 6 6 17 
 (presumably favorable to 
 the perception or enjoy- 
 ment of rhythm) 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order: (in % of 21 possible units) 
 
 O No. 7: 
 
 .95% 
 
 1: 
 
 .90 
 
 3,4, 12: 
 
 .81 
 
 9: 
 
 .48 
 
 2: 
 
 .43 
 
 8: 
 
 .38 
 
 5,6,10, 11: 
 
 .29 
 
 Observer No. 1 is an amateur musician; O No. 4 is an English 
 professor; O's No. 3, 5, 10, 11 are research students in the Depart- 
 ment of Psychology at Columbia; O's No. 2 and 6 are instruct- 
 ors, and O's No. 8 and 12, professors in this department; O No. 7 
 is a professional musician; O No. 9 is a Japanese graduate student 
 in Oriental Philology. The above list of preliminary grades has 
 only suggestive value. O No. 11, for instance, in spite of his low 
 position, ranks high in a number of the subsequent tests. 
 
 II. Pulse rate: O No. 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 (length of single pulse .80 .76 1.00 .86 .725 .735 .59 .83 1.16 .64 .82 .89 
 
 in seconds) 
 
 HI. Breath rate: 6.00 5.00 3.75 3.75 4.29 4.62 3.75 10.0 3.75 5.72 5.00 3.33 
 
 (length of single breath 
 
 in seconds)
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 131 
 
 IV. Image-type test (rough) : 
 
 V - visual, K - kinaesthetic (motor), Aud - auditory, Org - 
 organic, etc. 
 
 O No. 1: V 62%, Aud 20%, K 15%, (others scattered) 
 2: V 60%, Aud 20%, K 15%, 
 3: Aud-verbal 55%, (others vague and scattered) 
 4: V 55%, Aud 15%, K 10%, Aud-verbal suggestions 
 6 : V 80 %. (rough result of previous tests) 
 6: V60%, " " " " " 
 7: K 40%, V 20%, Aud-verbal 20%, Org 20% 
 8 : K predominates, then Aud (rough result of previous 
 
 tests) 
 
 9: V 80%, Aud 20% 
 10: V 70%, K-verbal 20%, K 10%, (distinctly deficient 
 
 in auditory imagery) 
 
 11: V 60%, Aud 20%, K 10%, (others scattered) 
 12: Aud predominates, then K, then V, (result of pre- 
 vious tests) 
 
 V. Unit-accuracy simple form : (uas) 
 
 O's first ten serial reproductions of the standard interval in 
 the second regular test are measured, their average obtained, and 
 their average deviation from this average computed by means of 
 the well-known formula discussed by M tiller: 1 
 
 SD 
 
 Average Variable Error 
 
 'n(n-l) 
 
 This particular formula arbitrarily increases the obtained value 
 for AVE, and is therefore advisable when the number of meas- 
 urements is limited. The Gross Constant Error is obtained by 
 subtracting the average of O's reproductions from the standard 
 interval. The AVE and the GCE thus obtained are turned into 
 per cents of the standard interval, and the O's are arranged by 
 means of these values into two series of relative order. 
 
 S (standard interval) = .7 sec. 
 
 O's arranged in relative order: (where the values are the same 
 for several O's, the latter are arranged, for convenience, in their 
 serial order). 
 
 GCE uas (unit-accuracy simple) Ave uas 
 
 O No. 1: -.002(%ofS) O No. 1: .02(%ofS) 
 
 7: -.01 9: .02 
 
 1 Miiller, Methodik, p. 192.
 
 132 APPENDIX III 
 
 6: +.01+ 7: .03 9: -.14+ 6: .05 
 
 6: -.02 8: .03 4: -.15 4: .06 
 
 11: +.02 11: .04 3: -.17 12: .07 
 
 8: -.06 6: .045 10: +.21 10: .09 
 
 12: +.14 3: .05 2: -.30 2: .12 
 
 Under conditions of accuracy in the present experiment a dif- 
 ference between two observers of .005 is not enough to produce a 
 real distinction. Observers No. 1 and 9 have the smallest average 
 variable error, which means that they are steadiest in this partic- 
 ular test in adhering to whatever reproduction they tend to 
 make of the standard interval. O's No. 1 and 7 and 5 have the 
 smallest gross constant error, which means that their average 
 reproduction is most nearly equal in size to the standard interval. 
 O's Nos. 1 and 7 have slightly underestimated it, as is indicated 
 by the negative signs; O No. 5 has overestimated it. O's No. 10 
 and 2 are both the most unsteady of the group (in this particular 
 test) and the most inexact. 
 
 VI. Subjective rhythm: 
 
 1. Involuntary (non-suggested, and suggested): 
 System of grading: 
 
 Grade 1: Observer mentions perceptions of rhythmic 
 grouping in the non-suggestion series and in 
 both the suggestion series. 
 
 Grade 2: O mentions perception of grouping in the non- 
 suggestion series and in one of the suggestion 
 series. 
 
 Grade 3: Groups mentioned only in the two suggestion 
 series. 
 
 Grade 4: Groups mentioned on only one of the suggestion 
 series. 
 
 Grade 5: No groups mentioned in any of the series. 
 
 Observers arranged according to grades: 
 Grade 1: O's No. 1 3 4 8 11 12 
 Grade 2: 667 
 
 Grade 3: 2 
 
 Grade 4: 10 
 
 Grade 5: 9 
 
 Observer No. 9 seemed to have no tendency to subjective 
 involuntary rhythm in this test.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 133 
 
 2. Voluntary: 
 
 System of grading: 
 
 Grade 1 : Observer signals the establishment of subjective 
 groups of 3 in the first test and of 5 in the 
 second, both within ten seconds. 
 
 Grade 2: O announces 3's and 5's within thirty seconds. 
 Grade 3: O fails in one of the tests, but announces the 
 desired grouping in the other within ten 
 seconds. 
 Grade 4: O fails in one, but announces grouping in the 
 
 other within thirty seconds. 
 Grade 5: O fails in both. 
 Observers arranged according to grades: 
 
 Grade 1: 
 
 O's No. 2 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 Grade 2: 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 Grade 3: 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Grade 4: 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 
 Grade 5: 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 Some of the observers announced that their failure to es- 
 tablish groups of 3 or 5 was due to the overpowering strength 
 of subjective 2's or 4's. This was especially true with O's 
 No. 4 and 6. O No. 9 announced that he could not force odd 
 rhythms of any sort. -^ 
 
 VII. Acceleration experiment (test for "swing"): 
 
 Standard series: .7 .6 .6 .5 .6 .7 sec. (Sum - 
 3.6 sec.) 
 
 A. Equations of trend: 
 
 1. (for first three diminishing i.e., accelerating intervals) 
 
 8 x 
 y = (y = length of interval, x = position in the series) 
 
 2. (for last three increasing i.e., retarding intervals) 
 
 x + 1 
 
 lo" 
 
 B. System of grading: 
 
 1. Gross Constant Error: the difference in seconds between O's 
 reproduction of the whole series and the sum of the six standard 
 intervals (3.6 sec.). The result is finally expressed in % of 3.6. 
 
 2. General Trend: Approximation of O's reproduction to stand- 
 ard series, a, b, c, d, e, f, represent the six intervals of the
 
 134 APPENDIX III 
 
 standard series in succession; a', b', c', d', e', f ', represent O's 
 reproductions. Errors in approximation less than .06 sec. 
 (1 mm. on the smoked-drum record) are not regarded as falsi- 
 fications. This, of course, simply puts an arbitrary interpre- 
 tation upon the meaning of general trend. Two successive 
 intervals, equalling each other in the standard series, are 
 considered as equal in O's reproduction, if within .06 sec. of 
 each other. Where the relation between two standard inter- 
 vals is a difference of .1 sec., a difference of .1 sec., plus or minus 
 .06 sec., between O's reproductions of these two intervals, is 
 not regarded as a falsification in general trend. In other 
 words, a' b' must be at least 04. and not more than .16, 
 in order not to be regarded as a falsification. Where b is less 
 than a, b' must be less than a', within these limits. 
 
 The six standard intervals involve thus seven conditions of 
 trend: a - b = .1, b - c = .1, c = d, e - d = .1, f - e = .1, 
 a = f , and b = e. Observers are graded according to the approxi- 
 mate conformity of their reproductions to these seven condi- 
 tions. This results in seven intervals of merit value between 
 and 7/7 (100%), or eight grades including the levels of 
 and 100, into which observers fall for the present purposes of 
 classification. The grades have no final value corresponding 
 to their appearance of accuracy. 
 
 Grade 1, in which no falsifications occur, is thus marked as 
 7/7, or 100%; Grade 2, in which one falsification occurs, is 
 marked as 6/7, or 86%; Grade 3, as 5/7; Grade 4, as 4/7; 
 Grade 5, as 3/7; Grade 6, as 2/7; Grade 7, as 1/7; and, finally, 
 Grade 8, in which all the seven conditions are falsified com- 
 pletely, or else not observed within the limits of .06 sec., as 
 described above, is marked as 0. This zero is, of course, not 
 absolute. 
 
 3. Average of Deviations f ] from the seven "Relativ- 
 ity Conditions," each deviation being expressed in % of the 
 respective relativity condition from which it deviates: 
 
 The "Relativity Conditions" are the relations, obtained by 
 division, between the six standard intervals. Only seven of 
 these relations are chosen as significant. They are as follows: 
 
 a/b = f/e = 1.17 
 b/c = e/d - 1.20 
 c/d - a/f - b/e - 1.00
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 135 
 
 Let a'/b' - L (the proportion existing between the first and 
 second interval of the observer's reproduction) 
 
 b'/c' - M f'/'e - P 
 
 c'/d' - N a'/P - Q 
 
 e'/d' - O b'/e' - R 
 
 Then 1.17 L 
 
 - D'% (deviation of a'/b' from a/b in % 
 
 of a/b) 
 
 1.20 
 
 1.00 - N 
 1.00 
 
 Sum D %'s - SD % - D' % +D" % +D" ' %, etc. 
 
 OJ 
 
 AVEsd - AVE for^=^ / ' '- > 
 
 7 6.5(-Vn(n-l)) 6.5 
 
 The grading value for approximation to the seven Relativity 
 Conditions is marked as GVrc, and calculated as follows: 
 
 GVrc - 2AVEsd + - + GCE (see sub-section 1, above) 
 
 This is an arbitrary equation, devised for the purpose of 
 convenience in ranking the observers. AVEsd is doubled in 
 order to give special weight to steady achievement. GVrc is 
 thus a compound, weighted expression of error. An observer 
 ranks high according to the smallness of this value. 
 
 4. General Trend in judgment and line-division: (GTld) 
 
 Same system of grading as for General Trend in section 2. 
 
 Grade 1 : no falsifications, 7/7 or 100 % 
 Grade 2: one falsification, 6/7 or 86% 
 Grade 3: two falsifications, 5/7 or 72% 
 etc. etc. 
 
 Each observer, thus, according to his grade, receives his 
 GT% for LD (general trend % for line-division) or GTld %. 
 
 5. General Trend in photographed reproduction: (GTph) 
 
 Same system as for 4. Each observer receives GTph %.
 
 136 APPENDIX III 
 
 6. General Trend in kymograph reproduction (one week after the 
 second-day experiment): (GTk) 
 
 Same system as above. Each observer receives his GTk %. 
 O's No. 3, 10, and 12, whose photograph reproductions, through 
 accidents, proved inadmissible for measurement, can be rated 
 with the rest of the group only by substituting their grade in 
 kymograph reproduction for their missing grade in photograph 
 reproduction. This, of course, involves inaccuracies, although 
 both the photograph and the kymograph records are based 
 upon O's memory of the original series after the lapse of a 
 week. 
 
 7. Final Grading Value for accuracy hi reproduction of the Stand- 
 ard Series, corrected by General Trend per cent in judgment 
 and line-division (GVacc) 
 
 ( 100- 
 GVacc- ' 
 
 This equation is, of course, arbitrary and merely represents 
 one way of weighting the results of the various records, in 
 order to come to a rough conclusion as to each observer's 
 ability, under the special conditions of the test, to perceive 
 and remember the accelerating progression, or "swing," of the 
 six standard intervals. 
 
 4GT% +2GTld% +GTph% . 
 
 simply means the average grade, 
 
 expressed in %, assigned to an observer for his ability in ap- 
 proximating the general trend of the series, with least weight 
 upon GTph%, twice as much upon GTld%, and twice that 
 amount upon GT%. There are thus seven units of weight in 
 all. The deviation of this average % from 100% is given equal 
 weight with the grading value for conformity to the seven 
 relativity conditions (GVrc). Their sum, accordingly, divided 
 by 2, gives an average, which is taken as a convenient grading 
 value for individual difference in accuracy of perception and 
 memory of the acceleration series. Its nature is that of a 
 compound, weighted error. 
 
 C: Results: 
 
 1. Gross Constant Error:
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
 
 137 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order according to GCE: 
 
 ,- .00 sec 
 
 .- .00 
 
 (% of S) 
 
 - -.03 
 
 .01 
 
 
 .03 
 
 .01 
 
 
 - +.04 
 
 - +.01 
 
 
 - +.05 
 
 - +.01 
 
 
 - +.08 
 
 - +.02 
 
 
 - -.13 
 
 - -.04 
 
 
 .16 
 
 .04 
 
 
 - +.33 
 
 = +.09 
 
 
 - +.36 
 
 - +.10 
 
 
 = +.44 
 
 = +.12 
 
 
 - +.69 
 
 - +.19 
 
 
 O No. 1: 3.60 -3.60 sec. - 
 
 3: 3.57-3.60 
 10: 3.57-3.60 
 
 8: 3.64-3.60 
 12: 3.65-3.60 
 11: 3.68-3.60 
 
 7: 3.47-3.60 
 
 6: 3.44-3.60 
 
 2: 3.93-3.60 
 
 4: 3.96-3.60 
 
 9: 4.04-3.60 
 
 6: 4.29-3.60 
 
 O's No. 3, 8, 10 and 12 are virtually on the same level; so, 
 No. 7 and 6. 
 2. General Trend: 
 
 Observers graded according to conformity to the seven con- 
 ditions of General Trend (a-b - .1 sec., b c - .1, c d-o, 
 d - e = .1, e-f- .1, a - f = 0, b - e = 0) within the limits 
 of .06 sec., as already explained. 
 
 The seven conditions are represented by seven symbols 
 following the number of each observer. An asterisk (*) rep- 
 resents a condition approximately fulfilled, a zero (0) represents 
 a falsification. 
 
 Condition: 1234567 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GT% 
 
 O No. 1: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 1 
 
 
 
 7/7 or 100% 
 
 12: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 2 
 
 = 
 
 6/7 
 
 6: 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 = 
 
 4/7 
 
 7: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 
 
 4/7 
 
 8: 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 = 
 
 4/7 
 
 11: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 m 
 
 4/7 
 
 4: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 5 
 
 - 
 
 3/7 
 
 2: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Grade 6 
 
 m 
 
 2/7 
 
 6: 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 6 
 
 m 
 
 2/7 
 
 9: 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 6 
 
 - 
 
 2/7 
 
 10: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 6 
 
 m 
 
 2/7 
 
 3: 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 7 
 
 = 
 
 1/7 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 tunes fulfilled
 
 138 APPENDIX HI 
 
 The first and third conditions (a - b -.1 sec, and c - d - 0) 
 were thus most frequently fulfilled. The fourth condition 
 (d - e - -.1) was most frequently falsified. 
 
 3. Average of Deviations from the seven "Relativity Conditions": 
 Observers arranged in relative order according to Average 
 
 (SD%) 
 of Deviations from the 7 Rel. Cond. (1.17, 1.20, 1.00, 
 
 1.20, 1.17, 1.00, 1.00): 
 
 SD% 
 
 O No. 1: .06 
 
 12: .07 7 
 
 11: .08 
 
 8: .13 
 
 5: .14 
 
 4: .14 + 
 
 7: .16 
 
 6: .19 
 
 2: .20 
 
 10: .23 
 
 9: .35 
 
 3: .435 
 
 Observers No. 1, 11, and 12, thus come closest, on an average, 
 to fulfilling the Relativity Conditions. 
 
 Arranged according to their average variable error in attain- 
 ing their individual average approximation to fulfilling the 
 conditions, the observers rank as follows: 
 
 O No. 1: .03-AVEsd 
 
 12: .05 
 
 6: .06 
 
 4: .065 
 
 11: .07 
 
 7: .075 
 
 8: .09 
 
 10: .10 
 
 2: .12 
 
 6: .17 
 
 9: .27 
 
 3: .28 
 
 Observers No. 1 and 12 are thus found to be steadiest, in 
 this particular test, in attaining for each condition their aver-
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
 
 139 
 
 age degree of approximation. In other words, they are likely 
 to make a number of small errors rather than one large error 
 counterbalanced by several very small ones. 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order according to the grad- 
 ing value for fulfillment of relativity conditions (GVrc) 
 
 ONo. 1: 
 
 12: 
 
 11: 
 
 6: 
 
 8: 
 
 7: 
 
 GVrc - 2AVEsd 
 
 .13 - GVrc 
 
 .18 
 
 .24 
 
 .31 
 
 .32 
 
 .35 
 
 +QCE 
 
 O No. 10 
 
 .44 
 
 -GVrc 
 
 4 
 
 .50 
 
 
 2 
 
 .53 
 
 
 6 
 
 .73 
 
 
 3 
 
 1.00 
 
 
 9 
 
 1.01 
 
 
 4. 
 
 Observers No. 1 and 12 thus attain the highest degree of 
 combined steadiness and average relative accuracy in perceiving 
 and reproducing the "swing" of the original series, together 
 with accuracy in estimating the gross value of its duration. 
 The average variable error in the formula employed above has 
 been arbitrarily weighted, in order to put a premium upon 
 steadiness in the final valuation. 
 General Trend in judgment and line-division: (GTld) 
 
 As in section 2 an asterisk (*) represents the fulfillment; a 
 zero (0), the falsification of a general trend condition (a-b = 
 .1 sec., etc.) 
 
 Observers graded according to conformity to the seven gen- 
 eral trend conditions: 
 
 Condition: 1234567 
 
 GTld% 
 
 No. 1: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 2 = 6/7 = .86% 
 
 2: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 3 - 5/7 - .72% 
 
 6: 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 3 etc. etc. 
 
 10: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Grade3 
 
 4: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 7: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 9: 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 4 
 
 5: 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GradeS 
 
 8: 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 5 
 
 11: 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 GradeS 
 
 12: 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 GradeS 
 
 3: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grade 7 
 
 8838775 times fulfilled
 
 140 APPENDIX III 
 
 It is interesting to note that the third condition, which in 
 section 2 was found to be one of the most frequently fulfilled, 
 is here the most frequently falsified. This condition is the one 
 of equality between c and d, the third and fourth intervals of 
 the series. On the other hand, the fourth condition (d - e - 
 - .1), which before was most frequently falsified, is here one of 
 the three most frequently fulfilled. Various causes produced a 
 certain amount of irregularity in the tune-interval that elapsed 
 between the hearing of the original series and the operation of 
 line-di vision; but with the exception of O No. 7, the latter 
 was performed after at least a week had elapsed subsequent 
 to the last hearing of the series. In this way the results, with 
 one exception, can be considered as affected by dimness of 
 memory in general, combined with effects of judgment per- 
 sisting, in some cases, over sensation images. Since the dec- 
 laration of judgments upon the intervals was required, in 
 addition to the line-division, there seems to be good reason for 
 considering the results obtained as largely matters of judgment, 
 backed up by whatever facility was given to the task by the 
 addition of a visual scheme. It would be an error, however, to 
 put any great reliance upon the line division test by itself. If 
 the observer merely remembers that the six intervals first 
 grew shorter and then longer, the task of dividing the line into 
 six intervals may by mere chance lead him into approximations 
 of great accuracy, or, on the other hand, into a different type 
 of error from what occurred in his immediate reproduction of 
 the series a week before. 
 
 5. General Trend in photographed reproduction: (GTph) 
 Observers graded as before: 
 
 Condition: 123 
 
 4567 
 
 
 GTph% 
 
 O No. 11: * * 
 
 * * ( 
 
 ) Grade 3 - 5/7 
 
 (72%) 
 
 1: * 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 4 - 4/7 
 
 
 2: 
 
 * * 
 
 Grade 4 = 4/7 
 
 
 9: * 
 
 * 
 
 Grade 4 - 4/7 
 
 
 4: * 
 
 000 
 
 Grade 5 - 3/7 
 
 
 8: * ( 
 
 ) * 
 
 Grade 5 - 3/7 
 
 
 (12: * < 
 
 ' * ( 
 
 ) Grade 5 - 3/7) 
 
 
 6: * ( 
 
 ) * ( 
 
 ) Grade 6 -2/7 
 
 
 (10: * * ( 
 
 ) ( 
 
 ) Grade 6 -2/7) 
 
 
 6: ( 
 
 ) * ( 
 
 ) Grade 7 - 1/7 
 
 
 (3:0 * ( 
 
 ) ( 
 
 ) Grade 7- 1/7) 
 
 
 4 7 ( 
 
 ) 6 1 3 < 
 
 ; times fulfilled 

 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 141 
 
 The spoken reproductions made by O's No. 12, 10, and 3 
 were unsuccessfully recorded, so that kymograph reproductions 
 tapped on the same day, are substituted in the above table. 
 This irregularity must be taken into consideration whenever 
 the results are applied. The most striking fact about the table 
 is that the fifth condition (e f - .1) is misjudged in 11 
 cases out of 12. In both the previous tables it was 6 times right 
 and 6 times wrong. 
 
 Sound -photograph measurements: (six-interval series of 
 seven "top's") 
 
 O No. 11: .76 .64 .49 .51 .56 .74 sec. 
 1: .77 .60 .52 .57 .63 .65 
 2: .68 .50 .50 .55 .52 .67 
 
 9: .57 
 
 .33 
 
 .27 
 
 .32 
 
 .32 
 
 .62 
 
 4: .43 
 
 .53 
 
 .44 
 
 .39 
 
 .57 
 
 .57 
 
 8: .79 
 
 .70 
 
 .45 
 
 .52 
 
 .72 
 
 .70 
 
 5: .86 
 
 .75 
 
 .52 
 
 .59 
 
 .63 
 
 .63 
 
 6: .93 
 
 .92 
 
 .55 
 
 .48 
 
 .63 
 
 .58 
 
 The above order is that of general trend, according to the 
 degree in which the reproductions correspond to the original 
 series: 
 
 .7 .6 .5 .5 .6 .7 sec. S - 3.60 
 
 On account of fluctuations in the time-line employed, these 
 measurements must not be considered accurate beyond .02 
 sec. for an interval of .75 sec. For the purposes of the present 
 experiment, however, an even larger margin could be per- 
 mitted. 
 6. Kymograph-reproduction: 
 
 This record was made simply as a precaution, in order to 
 have objective evidence of the observer's memory of the accel- 
 eration series, in case the photographic record happened to be 
 spoiled. This was the case with O's No. 3, 10, and 12, whose 
 kymograph memory records are subjoined: 
 
 O No. 12: .60 .62 .51 .50 .54 .84 sec. 
 3: .70 .30 .36 .54 .42 .60 
 10: .81 .70 .54 .70 1.00 .99 
 
 The photograph and kymograph memory reproductions were 
 made one week after the last hearing of the standard series. 
 To what extent any factors outside of judgment and memories
 
 142 APPENDIX III 
 
 of judgment come into play is a problem left unanswered. In 
 any case, the function of memory, even when dim and uncertain 
 in its source, is of much importance in determining individual 
 difference in connection with so-called "swing." The ability 
 to strike a certain note at what impresses the hearers as "ex- 
 actly the psychological moment " undoubtedly requires a com- 
 plex of more or less accurate memories of the preceding notes 
 in the series. In order that a progression of intervals may 
 lead to a definite "point," apparently inevitable when once 
 attained, the performer can hardly be expected to qualify for 
 the task unless he be provided with fairly accurate memory- 
 images, involving the "relations" as well as the absolute values 
 of the series he is completing. 
 
 7. Final Grading Value for accuracy in reproduction, corrected 
 by general trend % in judgment and line-division, and general 
 trend % in photograph reproduction (memory of S after 7 
 days): (GVacc) 
 
 GVacc 
 
 flQQ- 4GT%+2GTld%+GT P h%N ) + GVrc 
 V 7 / 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order: 
 
 O No. 1: 12.1 - GVacc (compound, weighted error) 
 
 12: 25.5 
 
 11: 34.5 
 
 6: 40.0 
 
 8: 40.5 
 
 7: 45.9 Average = 49.62 
 
 4: 51.3 
 
 10: 51.5 
 
 2: 53.85 
 
 6: 67.1 
 
 : 80.2 
 
 3: 93.0 
 
 It is surprising to find to what an extent the twelve observers, 
 according to the above figures, appear to represent a fairly 
 broad and comprehensive range of individual difference. The 
 two extremes represent about as even a deviation from the 
 average (49.6) as one could hope to find out of a much larger 
 group of persons. O No. 12, the second in the list, is almost 
 exactly as far from the first in the list as O No. 9, the next to
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 143 
 
 the last, is from the last. The same sort of relative position 
 exists for O No. 11, and O No. 6. The remaining six ob- 
 servers are found between the comparatively narrow range of 
 40.0 and 53.85. The arithmetical mean is 49.62, or virtually 
 50. In other words, the distribution of the observers happens 
 to suggest the normal probability curve, with a slight skew to 
 one side. The median comes between O No. 7 and O No. 4, 
 very close to the mean; and the mode or point of greatest 
 density is not far away, in the neighborhood of O No. 4. O 
 No. 4 may thus be regarded, roughly, as having a normal 
 degree of proficiency in accuracy of "swing" perception and 
 memory; those below him, as being to some extent deficient 
 in this respect; those above him, as being more or less unusual 
 in their proficiency. All systems of grading, however, are highly 
 dangerous and likely to be misleading if too much reliance is put 
 upon them. About the only fact that is really certain in the 
 above list of figures is the following: Under the conditions of 
 the present experiment, without regard to possible improve- 
 ment in performance, O's No. 1, 12, and 11 made a consistently 
 more accurate record of their perception and memory of a 
 certain series of accelerating and retarding intervals, than was 
 achieved by O's No. 6, 9, and 3. Many other deductions can 
 be made, some of them useful; but it must be remembered 
 that all of them will be tinged with a measure of uncertainty. 
 It must also be emphasized that in the above list of grading 
 values, the average (49.6) is the point of departure for ranking 
 the observers. GVacc, being a compound error, can exceed 
 100 numerically. 
 VIII. Schedule syncopation : 
 
 Schedule: 0"0 OO'O O'OO '00' (fifteen intervals) 
 The intervals between O's taps (marked in the schedule by 
 accents) are measured as far as the fifth tap. The first interval 
 represents O's reproduction of the standard interval (5. sec), as 
 given by the metronome. The second interval represents four 
 separate subjective untapped intervals. It is consequently divided 
 by four, after measurement. The next two intervals both repre- 
 sent three subjective intervals; so each of them is divided by 
 three. This makes eleven consecutive intervals to which a value 
 has been assigned. The first ten of them are taken and averaged 
 in order to represent O's ability to carry out a syncopation sched- 
 ule, based upon an assigned unit, which he is to reproduce "as 
 exactly as possible."
 
 144 APPENDIX HI 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order, first with regard to Gross 
 Constant Error (GCE), and then with regard to Average Variable 
 Error (AVE) in attaining their average reproduction: 
 
 GCEss (schedule sync.) AVEss 
 
 O No. 11: -.02 (% of S) O No. 6: .01 (% of S) 
 
 10: -.02+ 12: .02 
 
 8: -.09 8: .03 
 
 12: -.10 1: .04 
 
 7: -.13 4: .04 + 
 
 2: -.14 2: .05 
 
 9: -.14+ 11: .05 + 
 
 5: -.15 9: .06 
 
 1: -.15+ 3: .06 + 
 
 3: -.20 5: .09 
 
 6: -.25 10: .13 
 
 4: -.27 7: .50 
 
 The observers, without exception, underestimated the standard 
 interval in their reproductions. In other words, they went faster 
 than the metronome in their combined rate of tapped and un- 
 tapped intervals. O No. 10 stands high in average precision of 
 interval (GCE), but next to the last in steadiness. O No. 6 is 
 next to the last in average precision, but first in steadiness; i.e., 
 his rate was entirely too fast, but he maintained it consistently. 
 O No. 7 was the most unsteady of all in maintaining his average 
 rate. O No. 8 was consistently high in both respects. 
 
 IX. Complex coordination, involving Unit Accuracy. (CC and CCua) 
 
 O accompanies metronome, beating at .5 sec. interval, accord- 
 ing to the following schedule: 
 
 RF rf If "ta," LF rf If "clo," (repeated for twenty seconds) 
 RF = right foot (taps foot key) 
 rf = right finger 
 If = left finger 
 "ta," uttered by voice, taps omitted, etc., etc. 
 
 A. Complex coordination: (CC%) 
 
 Method of grading: 
 
 Grade 1: no taps added or omitted, and no confusion of "ta" 
 with "clo," between the first and fifth right-finger 
 tap, as it recurs in the series. (7/7 or 100%)
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 145 
 
 Grade 2: one tap added or omitted. (6/7 or 86%) 
 
 Grade 3: two tap errors. (5/7) 
 
 Grade 4: "clo" and "ta" confused, or three tap errors. (4/7) 
 
 Grade 5: " " " " and one tap error, or four 
 
 tap errors. (3/7) 
 Grade 6: " " " " and two tap errors, or five 
 
 tap errors. (2/7) 
 Grade 7: " " " and three tap errors, or six 
 
 tap errors. (1/7) 
 Grade 8: " " " " and four or more errors. (0) 
 
 Observers arranged according to grades: 
 
 Grade 1: O's No. 4 10 11 
 
 Grade 2: 1 3 6 8 9 12 
 
 Grade 3: 7 
 
 Graded: 2 5 
 
 Grades 4, 6, 7, and 8 are not represented. The above grades 
 can in no way be taken as final. In nearly every case, the observ- 
 ers made a strenuous effort to attain the result expected. This 
 was particularly true with regard to O's No. 3, 4, and 7. On the 
 other hand, O's No. 1, 10, and 11 achieved their results with com- 
 parative ease. There is no doubt that after a week of practise, 
 many, of the observers would have changed their relative position. 
 
 In the present set of experiments a longer test was out of the 
 question. As it stands, the grading is merely suggestive. It is 
 fairly certain that O's No. 1, 10, and 11, who responded to the 
 test with a visible degree of ease, possess at least a moderately 
 high measure of facility, native or acquired, in executing this par- 
 ticular task. O's No. 2 and 5 show deficiency. 
 B. Complex coordination, as affecting Unit Accuracy: (CCua, or 
 ccua) 
 
 System of measurement: 
 
 The intervals between the right and left finger taps are meas- 
 ured as far as the fifth such interval. These five measurements 
 are averaged; their Gross Constant Error determined in percent 
 of .5 sec. (the metronome interval they are supposed to equal); 
 and, finally, their Average Variable Error (written as AVEccua) 
 in attaining the average reproduction estimated according to the 
 formula used before. 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order, first with regard to GCE- 
 ccua and then with regard to AVEccua:
 
 146 APPENDIX III 
 
 GCEccua AVEccua 
 
 O No 12: -.08 (% of S) O No. 11: .02 (% of S) 
 
 4: -.10 3: .03 
 
 11: -.105 4: .03 
 
 3: -.11 7: .03 
 
 7: -.11 12: .06 
 
 1: -.12 1: .07 
 
 10: -.13 5: .07 
 
 6: -.21 10: .08 
 
 9: -.24 6: .12 
 
 6: -.27 2: .28 
 
 2: -.32 8: .32 
 
 8: -.35 9: .34 
 
 The Gross Constant Errors are all of them relatively large and 
 indicate a universal tendency to make the interval between the 
 right and left finger taps shorter than the interval of the metro- 
 nome which the observers are attempting to accompany. O's 
 No. 11, 4, 3, and 7 are consistently high in both columns. O No. 
 12 might also be included. O's No. 2, 6, 8, and 9 are consistently 
 low. These relations are of value in checking up the results of the 
 preceding gradings under A. 
 
 The two sets of results are combined into a grading value 
 for Complex Coordination (GVcc) according to the following 
 arbitrary formula: 
 
 100% - CC% 
 GVcc im + GCEccua + AVEccua 
 
 XvHJ 
 
 In this formula three error values are added together and 
 given equal weight in determining the relative position of the 
 observers; but since the second and third both refer to results 
 obtained under B for Unit Accuracy, the grade obtained for co- 
 ordination under A (CC%) plays a subordinate r61e. This seems 
 to be justified by the less accurate nature of the results obtained 
 under A. 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order, according to the grading 
 values (GVcc) obtained by combining the results of A and B: 
 O No. 11: .13 GVcc (compound error) O No. 7: .43 GVce 
 4: .14 6: .53 
 
 10: .21 9: .73 
 
 12: .28 8: .82 
 
 3: .29 5: .85 
 
 1: .33 2: 1.17 
 
 Average - .49
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 147 
 
 It must be remembered that GVcc is the sum of three errors. 
 
 GVcc 
 
 For some purposes - might be considered a more logical grad- 
 3 
 
 ing value. In this case the average amount of error would be 
 
 .49 
 rated as - .16. 
 
 The results for Unit Accuracy in the tables under B can be 
 correlated with similar results obtained in section V (AVEuas 
 and GCEuas), according to the following formulas: 
 
 AVEuas +AVEccua 
 AVEuat (Unit-accuracy Totals) 
 
 GCEuat- CEuM 2 +GCEcCUa 
 
 GVua (grading value) = 2AVEuat +GCEuat 
 
 This formula for GV gives special weight to steadiness, rather 
 than to merely average precision (GCE). 
 
 Observers arranged in relative order, according to the grading 
 values obtained for Unit Accuracy, both under simple conditions 
 and under the disturbances caused by the necessities of Complex 
 Coordination: 
 
 O No. 7 : .12 GVua (compound error) 
 
 11: .13 
 
 1: .15 
 
 3: .20 
 
 4: .20 + 
 
 12: .22 
 
 6 : .23 Average = .30 
 
 6: .31 
 
 10: .31 + 
 
 9: .53 
 
 8: .55 
 
 2: .66 
 
 The final emergence to the top of O No. 7, the professional 
 musician, is due to his consistently high rank. O No. 10's pro- 
 ficiency under the difficulties of coordination was relatively much 
 greater than when relieved of these difficulties, under the conditions 
 of the earlier test. Variation in the state of attention may have 
 been a factor in this discrepancy. The more difficult task may 
 have spurred her on to greater relative precision. 
 
 O No. 2 remains consistently last, and O No. 11 consistently 
 toward the first.
 
 148 APPENDIX III 
 
 X. Walking-rate, etc. : 
 
 Observers arranged according to time of walking-step, with 
 other "rates" in parallel columns: 
 
 Walk Nod Tap Sway Ta-Ta Pulse Breath 
 ONo. 1: .545 or .55 .81 1.03 1.03 .71 .80 6.00 sec. 
 
 3: 
 
 .555 
 
 .56 
 
 1.11 
 
 .38 
 
 1.03 
 
 .77 
 
 1.00 
 
 3.75 
 
 10: 
 
 .588 
 
 .6 
 
 1.25 
 
 .91 
 
 1.43 
 
 .59 
 
 .64 
 
 5.72 
 
 8: 
 
 .625 
 
 .6 
 
 1.43 
 
 .25 
 
 1.67 
 
 .25 
 
 .83 
 
 10.00 
 
 2: 
 
 .667 
 
 .7 
 
 3.33 
 
 .35 
 
 4.00 
 
 .42 
 
 .76 
 
 5.00 
 
 6: 
 
 .714 
 
 .7 
 
 1.67 
 
 .17 
 
 1.11 
 
 .25 
 
 .74 
 
 4.62 
 
 7: 
 
 .714 
 
 .7 
 
 1.00 
 
 .39 
 
 .91 
 
 .39 
 
 .57 
 
 3.75 
 
 11: 
 
 .789 
 
 .8 
 
 .91 
 
 .19 
 
 .91 
 
 .31 
 
 .82 
 
 5.00 
 
 9: 
 
 .811 
 
 .8 
 
 1.11 
 
 .63 
 
 1.05 
 
 .56 
 
 1.16 
 
 3.75 
 
 12: 
 
 .811 
 
 .8 
 
 1.67 
 
 .56 
 
 1.54 
 
 .40 
 
 .89 
 
 3.33 
 
 4: 
 
 .833 
 
 .8 
 
 1.82 
 
 .53 
 
 1.11 
 
 .36 
 
 .86 
 
 3.75 
 
 5: 
 
 .090 
 
 .9 
 
 .83 
 
 .50 
 
 1.25 
 
 .71 
 
 .73 
 
 4.29 
 
 The most striking apparent correlations are as follows: 
 
 O No. 1 : Tap and sway are identical, and approximately twice 
 walk. Pulse and nod approx. the same. Breath 
 is approx. six times tap. 
 2 : Tap is approximately half of walk. 
 3 : Nod is exactly twice walk, Ta-ta is twice tap. 
 4: Sway is approximately twice tap. 
 6: Ta-ta and pulse approximately equal. Breath, six 
 
 times ta-ta. 
 
 6: Ta-ta is one third of pulse. 
 7: Tap and ta-ta exactly alike. 
 
 8 : Tap and ta-ta exactly alike. Sway is twice pulse. 
 9 : Nod is twice ta-ta, and approximately equal to pulse. 
 10 : Ta-ta and walk the same. Nod approx. twice pulse. 
 11: Sway and nod exactly the same. Sway is approx. 
 three times ta-ta. Pulse and walk approximately 
 equal. 
 
 12: Nod is approx. twice walk, and three times tap. 
 Breath is twice nod. 
 
 These correlations are all more or less dubious, especially for 
 such short tests as the experiment demanded. The pulse-rates 
 are particularly unreliable. It is interesting, however, to form a 
 rough classification of the observers, according to the number of 
 correlations suggested.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 149 
 
 Arrangement of O's in relative order: 
 
 O No. 1 : four correlations. 
 
 O's No. 11 and 12: three correlations. 
 
 O's No. 3, 6, 8, 9, and 10 : two correlations. 
 
 O's No. 2, 4, 6, and 7 : one correlation. 
 
 It should be kept in mind that with seven sets of figures some of 
 the correlations might be easily due to mere chance. Of the seven 
 rates determined the walking rate is perhaps the most reliable. 
 The observers were not in any way hurried, but were asked to 
 walk up and down the main hall of the building until they were sure 
 they had attained what they could call a normal, comfortable rate, 
 such as they would employ if they were walking for pleasure. They 
 were to maintain this rate, on entering the laboratory, until meas- 
 ured with a stop-watch by the experimenter. It should be men- 
 tioned that their various rates, as measured, do not carry out 
 Wundt's theory of correlation of walking rate with length of 
 leg. The length of the leg of O No. 9 is 37 inches, measured from his 
 hip-bone to the floor. That of O No. 6 is five inches longer, yet in- 
 stead of 9's rate being faster than 6's, it is considerable slower, as 
 can be seen from the tables. The legs of O's No. 1 and 3 are both 
 two inches longer than O No. 9's, yet their rate of walking is very 
 much faster. 
 
 Wundt 2 gives .98 as the "usual" length of a double step, which 
 would make a single step equal .49 sec. The average of the steps 
 of the twelve observers in the present experiment amounts to .71 
 for a single step, or 1.42 for a double step. O No. 6, moreover, 
 has a single step almost equal to Wundt's "usual" double step. 
 Other investigators beside Wundt have announced average rates 
 more nearly in accord with the above results. 
 
 XI. Pitch memory : 
 
 Method of grading: The observer hears the original tone and 
 then a series of ten, three of which are repetitions of the stimulus 
 tone. These he is to identify, as explained in Appendix II. 
 
 Grade 1 : 3 exactly right. 
 
 Grade 2 : 2 right, 1 within 2 vibrations. 
 
 Grade 3: 2 " 1 "3 " 
 
 Grade 4: 1 " 2 "2 " 
 
 Grade 5:1 "1 "2 and 1 within 3 vibrations. 
 
 Grade 6: 1 " 2 "3 " 
 
 1 Wundt, op. tit., pp. 7 and 22.
 
 150 APPENDIX III 
 
 Grade 7: " 3 "2 
 
 Grade 8: " 2 "2 " "1 "1 " 
 
 Grade 9:0"! "2 " "2 "3 " 
 
 Grade 10 : All combinations in which one of the errors is 5 vibrations 
 away from the original tone. 
 
 The element of chance is, of course, a factor in so short and 
 rough a test as the present one, which can hardly be considered as 
 more than suggestive. Those, however, who fall within grades 
 8, 9, and 10, can be considered without much danger of error as 
 more or less deficient in pitch memory. 
 
 Observers arranged according to grades: 
 
 11 12 
 
 Grade 1: 
 
 ONo. 4 
 
 
 Grade 2: 
 
 3 
 
 
 Grade 3: 
 
 9 
 
 
 Grade 4: 
 
 2 
 
 7 8 
 
 Grade 5: 
 
 1 
 
 
 Grade 6: 
 
 not represented 
 
 Grade 7: 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 Grade 8: 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 Grade 9: 
 
 not i 
 
 epresented 
 
 Grade 10 : 5 
 
 It is clear that O No. 4 is excellent, and that O's No. 6, 10, and 5 
 are more or less deficient. There is also a probability that O No. 
 3 is excellent and O No. 9 not far behind him. The status of O's 
 No. 2, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 1 is rather doubtful, except as definitely 
 neither very high nor very low. 
 
 XII. Harmony memory : 
 
 Method of grading: O is to recognize a stimulus chord, repeated 
 three times in a series of ten. The test is fairly easy, and chiefly 
 calculated to bring out marked deficiency, rather than to establish 
 any detailed system of gradation among the observers. 
 
 Grade 1 : all three right. 
 Grade 2: two right. 
 Grade 3: one right. 
 Grade 4: none right. 
 
 O's arranged according to grade: 
 
 Grade 1: O's No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 
 
 Grade 2: O No. 5 
 
 Grade 3: No. 10
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 151 
 
 On account of the easiness of the task it is evident that O's No. 
 6 and 10 are more or less deficient. O No. 10's complete lack of 
 types of auditory imagery in the image-type test is confirmed. 
 
 XIII. Vowel-quality memory : 
 
 Method of grading: O is to identify three stimulus groups of 
 vowel sounds as they recur. 
 Grade 1 : all three right. 
 Grade 2: two right. 
 Grade 3: one right. 
 Grade 4: none right. 
 
 O's arranged according to grade: 
 
 Grade 1: O's No. 1, 2, 6, 6, 8, 9, 12 
 
 Grade 2: O's No. 4, 7 
 
 Grade 3: O's No. 3, 11 
 
 Grade 4: O No. 10 
 
 O No. 10 continues to show consistently the effects of a lack of 
 auditory imagery. The large number of those who made no errors 
 shows that the test was comparatively easy. This leads one to 
 infer that, at any rate, those who fell into grade 3 and 4 show a 
 marked inability to remember groups of vowel sounds. It is surpris- 
 ing, however, to find among this number O No. 11, who was first 
 in the list in the test for complex coordination (GVcc) and high in 
 the list in the Acceleration Experiment (GVacc). In the later tests 
 for syncopation (GVs) he also heads the list. According to the 
 rough image-type test, it is plain that he possesses a certain amount 
 of auditory imagery. His test in pitch-memory shows no marked 
 deficiency in that respect. It is of great significance, however, that 
 in answer to the rough preliminary questionnaire he reported that 
 he had no interest at all in verse and no interest in the style of prose. 
 The extent to which vowel quality in the form of "tone-color" 
 enters into the style of both verse and prose is quite obvious. It 
 is hard to say, however, just how far "interest" may affect accuracy 
 of perception in vowel quality, or how far accuracy of perception 
 may affect interest. 
 
 XIV. Choice of " swing " reproductions: 
 
 The results under this heading have been already tabulated under 
 section VII. 
 
 XV. Intensity memory : 
 
 Method of grading: O hears a stimulus intensity, roughly pro- 
 duced by the sound-pendulum, and then identifies its triple occur-
 
 152 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 rence in a series of ten. Five degrees of intensity (rough) are 
 employed. 
 
 all three right. 
 
 2 right, 1 within 1 degree of intensity. 
 
 Grade 1: 
 Grade 2: 
 Grade 3: 
 Grade 4: 
 Grade 5: 
 
 1, 1 within 2 degrees. 
 2 
 
 doubtful 
 
 1, 1 within 2, or 1 within 3. 
 
 Grade 6: all other combinations. 
 
 O's arranged according to grade: 
 
 Grade 1: O's No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 
 
 Grade 2: O's No. 7, 9 
 
 Grade 3: O No. 6 
 
 Grade 4: O No. 12 
 
 Grade 5: O No. 6 
 
 Grade 6: not represented 
 
 The inaccuracies connected with the use of a sound-pendulum 
 even when encased in a box of heavy felt (as was the case in the 
 present experiment) render the above grades nothing more than 
 very rough approximations. The necessity for a short test is, of 
 course, an even greater source of unreliability in the results, which 
 must be taken as merely suggestive. It is interesting to note that 
 O No. 10 and O No. 2, whose grades are low in some of the earlier 
 tests, are high in respect to Intensity Memory. O No. 10, accord- 
 ing to the image-type test, has a certain amount of kinaesthetic 
 imagery which, in spite of her lack of auditory imagery, is, no doubt, 
 of assistance in the present case. 
 
 XVI. Drum-beat rhythm of texts : 
 
 The statements dictated by each observer, with regard to the 
 thought, mood, and tone-color of the three sentences (A, B, and 
 C), were intended merely to lead up to the grading by units. The 
 following statements made by O's No. 3 and 10 are given as 
 examples. 
 
 O No. 3: Sentence A (de Quincey): "Thought seems strange 
 solemn mood ghostly an uneasy feeling when I 
 read it tone-color seems at first sombre and at the end 
 harsh." 
 
 Sentence B (Newman): "Thought seems progressive 
 mood lively tone-color varied, the first thing that struck
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 153 
 
 me suggests blare of trumpet a lot of redness more 
 difference in the a's and e's than in the others." 
 Sentence C (Pater) : "As to thought, nothing occurs to say 
 
 don't see much mood in it variety of vowels and con- 
 sonants noticeable, but that's all." 
 
 O No. 10 : Sentence A (de Quincey) : "Author's mood dreamy 
 
 seems to speak metaphorically doesn't seem able to 
 transfer his mood at all he's quite sincere, I think, but 
 doesn't interest me at all rather annoys me, I think 
 does not make his thought effective by his use of metaphor- 
 ical language seems to bury it in words vowel-color 
 dark general tone-color smooth, with several rather 
 sharp interruptions which break the monotony." 
 Sentence B (Newman): "Much more pleasing seems to 
 dance along a certain amount of swinging speed to it 
 thought distinct author seems able to transmit his 
 thought very nicely isn't abrupt or awkward rather 
 polished thought involves visual images which the 
 author has not seen himself, but which he makes his own 
 
 light vowel-color light consonant-color seems to 
 flow along." 
 
 Sentence (Pater): "Rather profound thought idea of 
 depth a little bit vague in transferring his thought a 
 little bit wordy vowels rather light the whole thing 
 seems to lose by that lightness it would have been better 
 if he had used darker vowels consonants give mixed 
 effect." 
 
 The replies given to the questions asked on drum-beat rhythm 
 
 ("How would the series of drum-beats you have just performed 
 
 affect you, if you had heard someone else beating it, etc.") were 
 
 also meant merely to lead up to the final grading. The following 
 
 abbreviated version of O No. 8's replies is appended as an example: 
 
 Sentence A: Enjoys would like it to continue it falls 
 
 into parts, definitely related, but dissimilar a definite 
 
 crescendo from rapid to slow, powerful beats the beats 
 
 began to group themselves into definite periods (when 
 
 repeated) in the beginning this was not true "The 
 
 third time I tapped it, the whole thing became a unit, with 
 
 secondary complications" recurrence of periods which 
 
 were similar and other periods which if not similar had 
 
 definite accents and speeds O is interested because it
 
 154 APPENDIX III 
 
 is not just a mechanical beating special interest in beat- 
 ing "central convulsions," because it seems to be bringing 
 things to a climax and is a variation of the rather undiffer- 
 entiated rapid beats that came before the whole thing 
 represents a definite increase toward a maximum of force 
 and vigor. 
 
 Sentence B: Much less interesting hi form, though dis- 
 tinctly smoother, livelier and lighter rather monotonous 
 no form as a whole it could have stopped in the 
 middle or gone on all day falls into unrelated parts 
 O gets more "mood" from tapping it out than from reading 
 it a musing mood O adds that sentence A, in the same 
 way, seemed to suggest something which is evident only 
 in the drum beating, not in the sense. 
 Sentence C: First impression is that C improves on ac- 
 quaintance the first tapping seemed a succession of 
 homogeneous strokes later a certain amount of form, 
 intermediate between A and B O had a f eeling that if 
 he had tapped a few more tunes, something more would 
 emerge was reminded of mood one gets from hearing a 
 Catholic priest recite a litany. 
 The result of the grading is as follows: 
 
 I II III IV S' S" 
 
 (fitness of form) (ease) (complexity) (pleas- 
 
 ingness) 
 Sentence A: 
 
 O No. 1: 3 3 1 2 9 10 
 
 2: 3 3 33 12 15 
 
 3: 3 2 21 8 10 
 
 4: 2 2 22 8 10 
 
 6: 3 1 32 9 12 
 
 6: 3 3 23 11 13 
 
 7: 3 1 33 10 13 
 
 8: 3 3 13 10 11 
 
 9: 3 1 13 8 9 
 
 10: 2 2 33 10 13 
 
 11: 3 2 12 8 9 
 
 12: 3 3 _2 3 Jl 13 
 
 24 114 138 
 
 (The sum of units assigned by each observer to a sentence is 
 listed under S'. The same sum with a weight of 2 attached to the
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 155 
 
 grade in Column III, is listed under S". This counting twice of the 
 grade given for complexity of problem, puts a premium, in the final 
 estimate (S"), upon the technical merit of the sentence from the 
 point of view of rhythm. Fitting rhythm for a difficult problem 
 deserves more credit than fitting rhythm for an easy one.) 
 
 Sentence B: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 S" 
 
 S' 
 
 No. 1: 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 2: 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 3: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 4: 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 6: 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 6: 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 7: 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 8: 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 9: 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 10: 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 11: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 12: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 _1 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 
 103 
 
 131 
 
 Sentence C: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 S' 
 
 S" 
 
 No. 1: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 2: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 3: 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 4: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 5: 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 6: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 7: 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 8: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 9: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 10: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 11: 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 12: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 28 80 108 
 
 The maximum number of units any sentence can receive is as 
 follows: 
 
 III S' S" 
 
 36 144 180
 
 156 APPENDIX III 
 
 The number of units each sentence received, expressed in per- 
 cent of the maximum in each case, is as follows: 
 
 III S' S" 
 
 Sentence A: .67 .79 .77 (de Quincey) 
 
 B: .78 .72 .73 (Newman) 
 
 C: .78 .56 .60 (Pater) 
 
 The sentence from de Quincey thus receives a lower grade for 
 difficulty of the problem involved, but, in any case, a higher final 
 grade than B or C. Another group of observers, or this same group 
 on another occasion, might have graded the sentences nfuch differ- 
 ently. It in no way follows that, because the sentence from Walter 
 Pater was graded low, some other sentence of his might not have 
 been graded very high. This particular sentence was chosen be- 
 cause it happens to be the first in a paragraph much praised by 
 Saintsbury (op. tit. p. 424): "in the second paragraph a further, 
 a more obvious, but a much more dazzling and wonderful trans- 
 formation is effected." 
 
 O's No. 6 and 12 agreed exactly in their distribution of units for 
 A; O's No. 4 and 5, for B; O's No. 1, 4, and 8, for C. In the fol- 
 lowing list of agreements in the final gradings (S") it may be well 
 to remember the personnel of the group. O No. 4, professor of 
 English; O No. 12, professor of Psychology; O No. 7, professional 
 musician; O No. 1, amateur musician; O No. 9, Japanese student 
 of philology; O No. 3, graduate student of Psychology with strong 
 musical tastes; O No. 10, former instructor in 'Psychology, quite 
 clearly deficient in auditory imagery; O No. 8, professor of Psy- 
 chology, with extensive experience in tapping experiments; O No. 
 11, research student in Psychology, with no interest in verse or 
 literary style; O No. 5, research student in Psychology, with 
 little interest in music; O No. 6, instructor in Psychology, with 
 some interest in music, but practically no musical training; and 
 O No. 2, with an interest in music, but no training. 
 
 List of agreements in final grading of the sentences: (S") 
 
 A: O's No. 9, 11 A and B: 7, 10 
 
 1, 3, 4 
 6, 7, 10, 12 
 
 B: O's No. 11, 12 B and C: none 
 
 7, 10 
 
 3, 8 
 6, 9 
 
 4, 6
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 157 
 
 C: O's No. 1, 4, 8 A and C: 1, 4 
 
 6, 6, 11 10, 12 
 
 10, 12 
 
 3, 7 
 
 XVII. " Possibility " scanning : 
 
 The elements considered are intensity (I), pitch (P), duration 
 (D), additional "weight" (W). The units are 3, 2, 1, with the un- 
 derstanding that 1 means anything from low to very low. Abso- 
 lute zero is excluded except in the case of pauses, which when so 
 graded, are simply regarded as not existing. 
 
 As explained in Appendix II, section XVII, the observer states 
 the maximum and minimum number of units, for each of the four 
 elements, which he considers as both possible and probable in his 
 particular case. 
 
 O's No. 1, 2, and 3 were the only ones who took part in this 
 experiment. Their results are tabulated below for the following 
 opening phrase of the sentence from de Quincey: 
 
 (from A) "For she can approach only those" 
 
 for (pause) she (p) can (p) approach (p) only (p) those 
 
 ONo. 1: 
 
 
 I: 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-2 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 P: 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 D: 
 
 3-1 
 
 (1-0) 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 (2-0) 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 W: 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 
 8-4 
 
 (1-0) 
 
 6-4 (0) 4-1 (0) 
 
 4-1 
 
 12-5 
 
 (2-0) 
 
 6-4 
 
 4-4(0) 
 
 6-4 
 
 o 
 
 No. 2: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I: 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 2-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 P: 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 2-1 
 
 2-2 
 
 3-2 
 
 
 2-1 
 
 2-2 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 D: 
 
 1-1 
 
 (D 
 
 3-1 (0) 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 (2) 
 
 3-1 
 
 2-1(0) 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 W: 
 
 3-2 
 
 
 3-2 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-2 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 
 7-5 
 
 (D 
 
 11-5 (0) 
 
 8-1(0) 
 
 5-5 
 
 12-6 
 
 (2) 
 
 11-4 
 
 6-4(0) 
 
 11-4 
 
 
 
 No. 3: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I: 
 
 2-1 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-3 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 P: 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 3-3 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 D: 
 
 1-1 
 
 (0) 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-3 
 
 (2) 
 
 3-1 
 
 1-1 (0) 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 W: 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-3 
 
 
 3-3 
 
 3-1 
 
 3-1 
 
 
 
 7-4 
 
 (0) 
 
 8-4(0) 
 
 8-4(0) 
 
 8-4 
 
 12-12 (2) 
 
 12-6 
 
 6-4(0) 
 
 1O4 
 
 Maximum 
 
 and 
 
 minimum 
 
 possibilities 
 
 12-4 12-4 
 
 12-4 
 
 12-4 12-4 
 
 12-4 
 
 12-4 
 
 12-4
 
 158 APPENDIX III 
 
 (This would include a range extending from a soft, low-voiced, 
 even chant to a loud, high-voiced, even chant. Pause possibilities 
 are omitted.) 
 
 The number of permutations and combinations possible within 
 these limits (eight syllables; nine choices, from 4 to 12 inclusive) 
 amounts to 81 choices for the first two syllables, or 9 raised to the 
 eighth power for the group of eight syllables, which is 43,046,721 
 choices altogether. The total number of scannings possible from 
 the markings as given by O No. 1 amount to 720. If figures for 
 pauses are added, the number is greater. It must be remembered, 
 however, that a large number of "possible" combinations derived 
 from separate "probable" maxima and minima would be highly 
 improbable, inasmuch as they would be conceived by the observer 
 to be limited to certain sequences. In this way, 720 must be 
 regarded as an overestimation. The fact remains, however, that 
 the number of choices is tremendous, and enough to destroy utterly 
 the possibility of depending on any one scanning for the "rhythm" 
 of a passage. 
 
 For O's No. 2 and 3 the case is even stronger. The gross figure 
 for O No. 2's number of choices is 140,352; for O No. 3, 73,500. 
 The actual number of probable scannings is, of course, much less, 
 owing to the fact that many of the gradings would be valid only 
 for certain sequences. Psychological investigations of the facts of 
 rhythmic experience have proved beyond any doubt that pitch, 
 duration, and other elements besides intensity, are factors that 
 cannot be disregarded. Any treatise that confines itself to so- 
 called "scanning," on the basis of intensity alone, is sure to be 
 misleading and unscientific. 
 
 XVIII. Pulse consciousness : 
 
 O's No. 1, 7, 8, and 12 are easily conscious of pulse or heart- 
 beats. 
 
 O's No. 3 and 9 are dimly so. The results for the rest are 
 negative. 
 
 Data for O's No. 2 and 11 is lacking. 
 
 XIX. Breath-segments: 
 
 O No. 1 feels exhalation as four times longer than inhalation. 
 This makes a rhythm of five for the two. O No. 10 feels inhalation 
 as four and exhalation as three. This makes a rhythm of seven. 
 O No. 8 feels inhalation as one, exhalation as two (rhythm of three). 
 O No. 12: inhalation four, exhalation five (rhythm of nine). O 
 No. 7: inhalation is vaguely longer. O No. 6 is conscious of no
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 159 
 
 breath-segments. The data for some of the subjects is lacking. 
 It is of great interest, however, to notice that even in this rough 
 experiment, certain observers breathe in a rhythm which is very 
 far from the usual idea of bodily rhythms as simple or multiples of 
 two. Careful objective measurement would in every case, no doubt, 
 show that the relation of inhalation to exhalation is actually too 
 irregular to fall exactly into any simple proportion. It is of the 
 greatest importance, nevertheless, to discover that certain ob- 
 servers feel a relation between the two that comes very close to 
 committing them to a rhythm of 5, 7, or 9 in their breathing. 
 Much might develop from a more careful investigation of subjec- 
 tive valuation for breath-segments, when such a valuation exists 
 at all. Of course, an observer might value his exhalation at three 
 and his inhalation at four, and yet deny that he was conscious of 
 a rhythm of seven in successive breaths. 
 
 XX. Photograph of seven-day memory reproduction of acceleration 
 test: 
 
 The results are tabulated under section VII, sub-section 5. 
 
 XXI. Judgment and line-division: 
 
 See section VII, sub-section 4. 
 
 XXII. Simple syncopation : (813) 
 
 O taps half-way between the clicks of a series given by the time- 
 sense machine in which the intervals are .66 sec. O's tap, 
 accordingly, should come .33 sec after the click from the machine. 
 His Gross Constant Error, plus or minus, and his Average Variable 
 Error are calculated upon this basis. 
 
 Arrangement of O's in relative order: (S = .33 sec) 
 
 GCEsis AVEsis 
 
 O No. 7: -.03 (% of S) O No. 11: .03 (% of S) 
 
 11: -.04 1: .05 
 
 8: +.05 12: .05 + 
 
 1: +.07 3: .08 
 
 4: +.07 9: .10 
 
 6: -.07+ 7: .11 
 
 12: -.10 6: .24 
 
 6: -.10+ 8: .44 
 
 3: +.13 4: .65 
 
 10: +.13 2: .68 
 
 9: +.17 6: .73 
 
 2: -.20 10: .73
 
 160 APPENDIX III 
 
 O No. 7, the professional musician, has the least GCE, and is 
 therefore on an average more precise than the rest of the group; 
 in steadiness (AVE), he is sixth in the list. O No. 11 is high, both 
 in average precision and steadiness. O's No. 10 and 2 are low in 
 both respects. 
 
 O's No. 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, and 12 found the task of syncopation 
 pleasant; the rest failed to find it consistently pleasant; O's No. 
 4, 9, and 10 found it distinctly unpleasant; O No. 5 was indifferent. 
 
 XXIII. Reaction to 6's and 7's: 
 
 O No. 1 : reacted to both 5's and 7's, within ten seconds, by kin- 
 sesthetic feeling in the throat. Kinsesthesis for 5's was more diffi- 
 cult to inhibit than for 7's. 
 
 O No. 2 : no reaction for 5's; throat kinsesthesis for 7 rhythm, 
 within ten seconds, very difficult to inhibit. 
 
 O No. 3 : head and larynx movements for 5 rhythm, within ten 
 seconds, fairly easy to inhibit. No consciousness of breath affec- 
 tion. Responded to 7's by twitch on left side of face, within 
 twenty seconds, fairly easy to inhibit. Breath vaguely affected. 
 
 O No. 4 : unpleasant but uncontrollable motor reaction, impulse 
 to "pull away," established for 5's, within ten seconds. The un- 
 pleasantness was largely due to the timbre of the drum-beats, but 
 not entirely. The same motor reaction for 7's, not quite so un- 
 pleasant, was established within fifteen seconds, and proved very 
 difficult to inhibit. 
 
 O No. 6 : no reaction to 5's or 7's. 
 
 O No. 6: reacted to 5's, within twenty seconds, by dip of head 
 for the accents, and vague eye or eyelid or throat movements for 
 the smaller beats, difficult to inhibit. Reacted for 7's, within ten 
 seconds, with same type of movements as before, very difficult to 
 inhibit. 
 
 O No. 7: reacted to 5's at once by wave movement up his back; 
 established 7's, within ten seconds, by movement of "stiffening," 
 easy to inhibit. 
 
 O No. 8: 5's within twenty seconds, nodding of head up and 
 down. An upward movement on the accent and forward move- 
 ments in segments that roughly coincided with the following 
 beats all difficult to inhibit. 7's within ten seconds, motor reac- 
 tion localized in eyeball as motion up and to the left on the accent 
 of each group, then more slowly downward but not in any definite 
 segments all difficult to inhibit. After well under way, O in- 
 haled on one accent, exhaled on the next.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 161 
 
 O No. 9: 5's within fifteen seconds, head movements, easy to 
 inhibit; 7's within fifteen seconds, head movements, more diffi- 
 cult to inhibit. 
 
 O No. 10: no motor response to 5's or 7's. 
 
 O No. 11: 5's within twenty-five seconds, movement of left 
 hand for accents, nothing for subordinate beats, no breath affec- 
 tion. Reaction easy to inhibit. No reaction for 7's. 
 
 O No. 12: uncontrollable motor response in throat for 5's, fol- 
 lowed the rhythm with a kind of visual diagram; " too intro- 
 spective" for motor reaction to 7's, though it would have been 
 " natural to beat time." 
 
 O's No. 5 and 10 were the only ones who did not react to either 
 5's or 7's. O No. 4 reacted, but found it unpleasant. O No. 2 
 reacted only to 7's; O's No. 11 and 12, only to 5's. 
 
 XXIV. Complex syncopation (involving regulated practice) : 
 
 O attempts to tap 5's while the machine clicks 7's. E gives him 
 various helps, all connected with the substitution of a "rhythmic 
 tune " instead of any conscious " thinking out " of the task. The 
 correct length of interval (.936 sec), for a fifth of the gross time cov- 
 ered by seven clicks of the machine, is taken as the standard which 
 O is to approach. His GCE and AVE are determined with refer- 
 ence to the average of his first five intervals. 
 Arrangement of O's in relative order: 
 
 GCEcs AVEcs 
 
 O No. 1: 
 11: 
 12: 
 
 7: 
 
 8: 
 
 6: 
 
 3: 
 
 4: 
 10: 
 
 9: 
 
 2: 
 
 6: 
 
 O's No. 1, 7, 11, and 12 rank highest in average precision; O's 
 No. 4, 11, 7, and 1, in steadiness. O's No. 10 and 9 are consistently 
 low. All of the observers improved tremendously during the 
 stages of practice allowed them before the final record. Both O's 
 
 -.009 ( % of .936 sec) 
 
 ONo. 4: 
 
 .06 
 
 +.01 
 
 11: 
 
 .09 
 
 +.015 
 
 7: 
 
 .11 
 
 -.02 
 
 1: 
 
 .12 
 
 -.03 
 
 8: 
 
 .13 
 
 -.06 
 
 12: 
 
 .18 
 
 -.08 
 
 2: 
 
 .18 + 
 
 -.08 + 
 
 6: 
 
 .18 + 
 
 -.16 
 
 3: 
 
 .21 
 
 +.20 
 
 5: 
 
 .21 + 
 
 +.28 
 
 10: 
 
 .31 
 
 -.40 
 
 9: 
 
 .48
 
 162 APPENDIX III 
 
 No. 10 and 9, who found great difficulty in the task at first, suc- 
 ceeded, by means of the rhythmic tune, in achieving encouraging 
 results. 
 
 XXV. Individual " swing": 
 
 The syllables marked by asterisks in the following arrangement 
 of words are tapped upon the kymograph. 3 The intervals from 
 asterisk to asterisk are measured for each observer: 
 
 ****** * 
 
 Prose is prose prose is prose prose is prose while poetry 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 is opposed to prose, prose-poetry is opposed to any poetry that 
 
 * * 
 
 may be composed in any other way than that of prose. 
 
 The intervals vary in respect to "filling," although none, not 
 even the second and fourth or ninth and tenth, can be considered 
 as absolutely "empty." The subjective effect of "filling" upon 
 the apparent duration of intervals has been discussed in Chapter 
 II. 
 
 The following measurements are in millimeters, as recorded on 
 the smoked drum of the kymograph. 1 mm = .06 sec. 
 
 Intervals: 
 
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 
 ONo: 
 
 1: 8 9 8 9 8 8.5 8 11.518.6 9 11.314 24 32 
 
 2:10 12 20 21 10 28 11.511 17 5 15 15 23 29 
 
 3:14 20 18 20 11 23 14 23 20.5 7 21 15 23 39 
 
 4: 14 15 15 15 14 22 14 10 17 11 18 16 25 38 
 
 5:13.512 14 18 15 22.518.511 16 14 21.518 21 35 
 
 6: 8.5 8.5 8 10 7 12.5 7.5 6 9 5 8 9 18 26.5 
 
 7:11 13.312 15 14 14.513 11 13 7 14 13 23 31 
 
 8: 14 16.5 14.5 16.5 12 20.5 15.5 10.5 18.5 6.5 15 14 23 31 
 
 9:11 16 10 16 8 22 14 12 22 7 16 19 25.536 
 
 10:15 15 15.316.515.525 15 15 16 9 14.525 26.532 
 
 11: 9.5 12.5 9.5 13.5 9.3 18.3 9.5 8.5 16 5.5 11 14 19 31 
 
 12 : 10 12 10.5 12 11 20 12 9 16 6.5 19 16.5 25 37 
 
 3 A series of experiments is now being planned, in which the observer 
 utters the arrangement of words without mechanical constraints of any 
 sort. The performance is recorded by sound-photography.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 163 
 
 It would be easy to draw misleading inferences from the above 
 figures, especially since subjective impressions so largely deter- 
 mine rhythmic values. Two intervals can seem equal which differ 
 considerably in objective measurement, and the nature of "filling" 
 in language is infinitely more complex than a mere enumeration of 
 syllables. The subjective value of an interval in speech depends 
 upon the distractive value, reacting upon attention, not only of 
 "filling" but also of the two limits or boundaries of the interval.* 
 In the case of speech, the nature of the filling and the boundaries 
 involves elements of too subtle a quality ever to be detected in a 
 quantitative form. With such precautions duly in mind, however, 
 it is only proper that the objective relations should be examined 
 at least. 
 
 Intervals 1, 3, and 5, for instance, present on the surface similar 
 filling and similar boundaries. The same is true of intervals 2 
 and 4. Interval 9 is different because of the nature of the material 
 beyond the boundaries a situation which has certainly not been 
 fully investigated even in the most recent treatises on time-esti- 
 mation. Intervals 12, 13, and 14 represent in mere syllable filling 
 an obvious, not necessarily regular, progression in length. It is, 
 accordingly, of interest to see what objective treatment in the 
 matter of mere duration they receive from the various observers, 
 especially those who, in other tests, have shown marked tendencies 
 in any direction. O's No. 1, 6, 11, and 12 ranked high in both 
 syncopation and acceleration. O's No. 2, 9, and 10 were fairly 
 low in both. Their records, accordingly, would be particularly 
 significant. 
 
 Table I: Intervals 1, 3, 5, and 2, 4: (Instances of regularity) 
 
 1, 3, 5 equal in the case of O's No. 1 and 11 (approx.) 
 
 1 E II II II II II II n "A 
 
 2, 4 " " " " " 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12 
 
 1, 3, 5 form a regularly retarding progression in the 
 case of O's No. 10 and 12 
 
 O's No. 1 and 12 are the only ones in which both groups of in- 
 tervals display objective regularity. The regularity is one of 
 equality with O No. 1; it is partly one of equality and one of 
 progression with O No. 12. O's No. 4 and 11 rank next, perhaps, 
 to O's No. 1 and 12. O No. 7 shows an irregularly retarding pro- 
 gression; while O's No. 6 and 9 show an irregularly accelerating 
 
 * Benussi, op. cit., p. 481.
 
 164 APPENDIX III 
 
 progression, in the relations of intervals 1, 3, 5. O No. 10 is about 
 on the same level with O No. 2, but her regular retarding pro- 
 gression is significant, especially since in all the tests where the 
 subject came up, she professed an interest in acceleration and 
 retardation, as opposed to her lack of interest in syncopation. 
 
 Table II: Intervals 12, 13, 14 (a, b, c): 
 Let L = c/b -b/a 
 
 M = (c -b) -(b -a) 
 
 N 
 
 b/ 
 O No. 
 
 
 
 b/a 
 
 
 
 
 
 b/a 
 
 c/b 
 
 L 
 
 M 
 
 N 
 
 1: 
 
 1.715 
 
 1.333 
 
 -.38 
 
 +.12 sec. 
 
 5: 4 (approx.) 
 
 2: 
 
 1.54 
 
 1.18 
 
 -.36 
 
 -.12 
 
 11: 8 
 
 3: 
 
 1.54 
 
 1.69 
 
 +.15 
 
 +.48 
 
 15:17 
 
 4: 
 
 1.56 
 
 1.52 
 
 -.04 
 
 +.24 
 
 1: 1 
 
 5: 
 
 1.16 
 
 1.67 
 
 +.51 
 
 +.66 
 
 7:10 
 
 6: 
 
 2.00 
 
 1.47 
 
 -.53 
 
 -.03 
 
 4: 3 
 
 7: 
 
 1.77 
 
 1.35 
 
 -.42 
 
 -.12 
 
 4: 3 
 
 8: 
 
 1.64 
 
 1.35 
 
 -.29 
 
 -.06 
 
 5: 4 
 
 9: 
 
 1.333 
 
 1.41 
 
 +.08 
 
 +.24 
 
 13:14 
 
 10: 
 
 1.06 
 
 1.20 
 
 +.14 
 
 +.24 
 
 5: 6 
 
 11: 
 
 1.35 
 
 1.54 
 
 +.29 
 
 +.42 
 
 5: 4 
 
 12: 
 
 1.52 
 
 1.47 
 
 -.05 
 
 +.21 
 
 1: 1 
 
 With regard to intervals 12, 13, 14, the greatest caution is neces- 
 sary before pronouncing judgments. All three intervals are "filled" 
 to a high degree that is, they contain no imperative punctua- 
 tional pauses, and can be considered as a succession of syllables 
 with pauses that are likely to be short, when introduced at all. 
 It is perfectly possible to cover the three intervals with one breath. 
 The "boundaries" of the intervals are fairly important syllables 
 with approximate equality of timbre ("po," "po," "po," and 
 "pro"). According to Benussi 6 the subjective time value of an 
 interval diminishes when the two limits are held together firmly as 
 a group, with striking similarity as their bond. Since this condi- 
 tion applies fairly well to all three of the intervals, it may be 
 inferred that their relations to each other will not be disturbed by 
 this particular factor, however much shorter their gross sum 
 might appear to consciousness on account of the ease with which 
 their boundaries can be held together. 
 
 6 Benussi, op. cit., p. 481.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 165 
 
 Intervals filled with mental work, whether hard or easy, accord- 
 ing to Benussi,* appear shorter for this reason. In this matter 
 again the relations of the three intervals are not disturbed. Wundt 7 
 gives the following general tendencies in connection with filling: a 
 "short" filled interval (from .5 to 1.5 sec. in length) seems longer 
 than an equal empty one; a "long" filled interval (over 2 sec.) 
 seems usually shorter. An interval measuring no more than 25 mm 
 on the drum (1.5 sec.), would, accordingly, seem longer or slower; 
 one measuring over 34 mm (2.04 sec.) would be likely to seem shorter 
 or faster than its objective length would indicate. Between 25 mm 
 and 34 mm would lie an indifference point where subjective dis- 
 tortion, on this particular ground, would not be likely to occur. 
 This, of course, is a condition quite capable of distorting relations 
 between two intervals such as 1 second and 3 seconds, in which the 
 first might seem like 1.1, for instance, and the second like 2.9. 
 The objective simple proportion of 1:3 would thus be quite de- 
 stroyed. If, however, none of the three intervals are less than 
 14 mm or greater than 38 mm, which covers most of the measure- 
 ments for the group of observers, it might be taken for granted that 
 the amount of distortion due to this particular factor in the relations 
 of the intervals would be comparatively small. The really great 
 and forever unmeasurable factor is the individual distribution of 
 attention over the objective field, never alike for any two persons 
 and practically never alike for the same person on two different 
 occasions. The only satisfaction we can extract from the discovery 
 of objective regularity in the measurements of the intervals is due 
 to the fact that, however much we may resent long stretches of 
 mechanically regular rhythms, we all respond more or less to short 
 stretches of exact rhythm. We should probably find it very hard 
 to distinguish at all between longer stretches of regularly acceler- 
 ating or retarding beats and the slightly varied progressions which 
 would occur when our favorite pianist, for instance, performed the 
 acceleration or retarding in question. In considering this matter 
 we must be very careful to remember that we are thinking of rhythm 
 apart from tone and other factors. 
 
 Keeping all this in mind as a check upon the final value of any 
 rough inferences that may be made, the most interesting thing 
 to notice in the table for intervals 12, 13, and 14, is that O's No. 4 
 and 12, especially O No. 4, come very close to a perfectly regular 
 geometrical progression with the same moving ratio in both cases: 
 
 Benussi, op. til., p. 286. 7 Wundt, op. tit., Ill, p. 49.
 
 166 APPENDIX III 
 
 a:b: :b:c: :2:3. Expressed as N(c/b:b/a) this becomes, as in 
 the table, 1:1. 
 
 O's No. 2, 3, and 9, who were low in the results for syncopation 
 and acceleration in previous tests, are in this case the furthest from 
 reaching simple ratios. O's No. 5, 6, and 10, however, who were 
 low in the tests referred to, achieve fairly simple ratios. O No. 5's 
 figures, according to one form of approximation, come close to a 
 ratio of 2: 3. O No. 7, the professional musician, has one of the 
 more simple ratios. 
 
 The matter of increase or decrease in the size of the increment 
 of retardation, which occurs in all cases, is rather puzzling. With 
 O's No. 2 and 7 it decreases in size; with O's No. 6 and 8 it re- 
 mains about the same; but with all the other eight observers it 
 increases, the increase varying from .12 sec. to .66 sec. (O No. 6). 
 The larger amounts, of course, indicate a tendency to a pronounced 
 retarding. It must not be forgotten, however, that although in- 
 terval 14 may be made much longer than its predecessors, it is 
 perfectly possible for the observer to have felt it, not at all as an 
 experience of retarded articulatory motion, but rather as an experi- 
 ence of great hurry on account of having to utter so many syllables 
 between the two marked accents. This sense of hurry probably be- 
 gins for nearly every one, according to Wundt's figures for filled 
 intervals, as soon as the interval exceeds 2 seconds in length. 
 Such intervals occurred as the last of the series of three for O's 
 No. 3, 4, 6, 9, and 12. O No. 6, accordingly, may easily have had 
 this feeling of hurry to some extent, although he was retarding 
 relatively more than any one else in the whole group in his last 
 interval. 
 
 Comparing the results from both tables (with regard to inter- 
 vals 1, 3, 5; 2, 4; and 12, 13, 14), it is clear, at any rate, that O 
 No. 1 shows objective precision in both; O No. 12, precision and 
 regularity in progression; O No. 7 shows irregularity in the first 
 table, but is one of the four whose N values in the second table 
 suggest the most simple forms of progression; O No. 4 shows 
 regularity of progression; and some precision; O No. 11, some 
 precision and some regularity of progression; O No. 10, a good 
 deal of regularity of progression; O's No. 2 and 9, a good deal of 
 irregularity; O's No. 5 and 6, some regularity but little precision; 
 O No. 8, regularity and some precision; O No. 3, some precision, 
 but much irregularity of progression. Just what any of them really 
 "felt" in the way of a rhythmic experience during their perform- 
 ance, is another matter entirely.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 167 
 
 XXVI. Musical " swing " : 
 
 The object of this experiment is chiefly to make clear the fact that 
 the conventional notation, when denoting a perfectly precise rela- 
 tion, is attended by all sorts of irregularities in the actual perform- 
 ance. If tapping, according to Wallin and others, "triples" the 
 regularity of rhythmic performances, any irregularities found when 
 such a form of reproduction is employed should be given all the 
 more weight. Their source, either in cases of so-called "agogic" 
 accent (in which added duration is used as a means of emphasis in 
 the place of added stress) or in mere inaccuracy on the part of the 
 performer, is not discussed at present. 
 
 The following figures represent drum-record measurements of the 
 first three notes in the melody of "My Country 'tis of Thee," 
 which in the conventional notation are written as of equal value: 
 
 ONo. 1: .36 .42 .38 sec. Range: .06 sec. 
 
 2: .30 .33 .33 .03 
 
 3: .72 .72 .78 .06 
 
 4: .60 .54 .48 .12 
 
 5: .30 .30 .30 .00 
 
 6: .45 .24 .30 .23 
 
 7: .42 .45 .48 .06 
 
 8: .60 .51 .50 .10 
 
 9: .51 .57 J:4 .60 .09 
 
 10: .78 .72 .60 .18 
 
 11: .48 .48 .42 .06 
 
 12: .54 .54 .54 .00 
 
 O's No. 5 and 12 gave the notes equal value; the other ten ob- 
 servers covered a range of from .03 sec. (O No. 2) to .23 (O. No. 6). 
 
 O No. 1 made the second note the longest. 
 
 O's No. 3, 7, 9 made the last note longest. 
 
 O's No. 4, 6, 8, 10 made the first note longest. 
 
 O No. 11 made the first and second equal and longer than the 
 third. 
 
 O No. 2 made the second and third equal and longer than the 
 first. 
 
 It is easy to find reasons in Riemann's "agogic" accent to ex- 
 plain the distortions in the case of O's No. 1, 4, 6, 8, and 10. In 
 the case of O's No. 3, 7, and 9 another form of "agogic" accent in 
 which the interval before the note to be accented is lengthened, 
 comes into play. 
 
 If the above results are obtained in spite of the regulating effect
 
 168 APPENDIX HI 
 
 of tapping, it ought to be quite clear that music of a simple metri- 
 cal pattern involves objective irregularities that cover a compara- 
 tively large range in a short space of time. This fact should be 
 kept constantly in mind by those who fail to see how easy it is to 
 organize subjectively, upon an essentially musical basis, the irregu- 
 lar intervals of prose. It can hardly be expected, however, that 
 the more or less unmusical or unrhythmical person can ever thor- 
 oroughly organize anything upon a musical basis. For such a 
 person prose, and verse, and music itself, may give something 
 approaching a rhythmic satisfaction, but never the really com- 
 plete experience. 
 XXVH. Phonograph test: 
 
 O hears five series of drum-beats reproduced by the phonograph. 
 He has no information as to their source. The first is a sentence 
 from Walter Pater; the second, a passage of music by Chopin; the 
 third, a sentence from Henry James; the fourth, a haphazard 
 arrangement of words ; the fifth, a haphazard arrangement of musi- 
 cal notes. These are referred to below as Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 Grading of series for pleasantness: 
 
 Units of relative rank (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) were assigned by O's after 
 the first hearing and after the fourth. 5 stands for highest and 1 
 for lowest. Some of the O's were unable to grade the series after 
 only one hearing. S (series) 2 and 4 were graded as most pleasant 
 twice (by two O's). No other two O's agreed on their choice of 
 the most pleasant. After the fourth hearing, S 1 and 2, the passage 
 from Pater and the music from Chopin, were graded as most pleas- 
 ant by three O's ; S 5, the haphazard music, was graded as most 
 pleasant on the fourth hearing by O's No. 4 and 6. S 3 and 4, 
 James and the haphazard prose, were not graded as most pleasant 
 by anyone, but James was graded with four units by O's No. 3, 8, 
 and 11; and haphazard prose, with four units by O's No. 4 and 12. 
 
 Grading for elusiveness: 
 
 On the first hearing, Pater was graded as the most elusive by O's 
 No. 6, 10, and 12; and with four units, by O's No. 4, 6, and 7. The 
 regular music and haphazard prose were graded 5 by two O's. On 
 the fourth hearing, the haphazard music was graded as most elu- 
 sive by O's No. 3, 4, 9, and 10; Chopin, by O's No. 2 and 8; hap- 
 hazard prose, by O's No. 11 and 12; Pater, by O No. 6; James, 
 by no one. The highest number of units of elusiveness assigned to 
 James was three, given by O's No. 5, 8, and 9. No. 7 insisted 
 that, after a fourth hearing, none of the series could be graded as 
 elusive.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 169 
 
 They all suggested to him definite musical themes. 
 
 Grading for ease in beating time: 
 
 Each of the series was assigned units (3, 2, 1) for ease and satis- 
 faction on the part of O, in his attempt to beat time to them. 1 
 includes very "low"; absolute zero is excluded. 
 
 Arrangement of series in regular order: 
 
 A: strict unit: Series 2: 17 (total number of units received) 
 
 " 1: 16 
 
 " 5: 15 
 
 " 4: 14 
 
 " 3: 12 
 
 B: elastic unit: Series 3: 19 
 
 " 5: 19 
 
 " 2: 18 
 
 " 4: 16 
 
 " 1: 15 
 
 With a strict unit, the Chopin music and the passage from 
 Pater were considered the most satisfactory. James was rated 
 last. With an elastic unit most of the records received higher 
 grades, but the haphazard music was found to be most satisfactory. 
 Haphazard music received a grade of three, meaning "a high degree 
 of satisfaction," from O's No. 2, 4, 6, and 8. James received a 
 grade of three from O's No. 6, 8, 10, and 12. The haphazard prose 
 received three from O's No. 4 and 8. Chopin received the lowest 
 grade from O's No. 2, 4, and 5. O No. 1, having made the records, 
 did not take part in the test. 
 
 The results for identifying the source of each of the five series 
 were as follows: (P = prose, M = music, HP = haphazard prose, 
 HM = haphazard music) 
 
 O's No. 2 3 4 6 6 78 9 10 11 12 (actually) 
 S1MPPHPPMPPPPP (P) 
 
 S 2 HM M M HM M M M M M M P (M) 
 
 8 3 P P HM P P M P HP HP HM P (P) 
 
 S 4 HP HP P P HP M HM P P P HP (HP) 
 S 5 M HM HP M HM M HP HM HM HP HM (HM) 
 
 O's No. 2, 9, and 10 were the only ones who marked any of their 
 judgments with an "a" (implying certainty). 
 
 As a result of the above tabulation, it is evident that Pater was 
 marked as prose seven times, as music three times, and as haphazard 
 prose once. James was marked once as music, and twice as hap-
 
 170 APPENDIX III 
 
 hazard music; six times as regular prose, twice as haphazard prose. 
 The total markings are as follows: 
 
 (marked as) P M HP HM 
 
 S 1 (Pater) 7310 
 
 S 2 (Chopin) 1802 
 
 S 3 (James) 6122 
 
 S 4 (Haph. P) 5141 
 
 S 5 (Haph. M) 0335 
 
 No. 7 insisted on marking all five as giving him the impression 
 of regular music. No one marked haphazard music as prose. 
 
 XXVin. Questionnaire : 
 
 Results: 
 
 1. O's No. 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 enjoy effects of syncopation 
 when understood: 
 
 O No. 10 enjoys very little: 
 
 2. O's No. 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 enjoy effects of acceleration: 
 O's No. 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7 very much: 
 
 O's No. 8 and 12 fairly well: 
 O No. 11 very little: 
 O No. 9 not at all: 
 
 3. O's No. 1 (data from section I), 6, 6, 8, 11 prefer simple balance: 
 O's No. 2, 4, 7, 10 prefer occult balance: 
 
 O's No. 3, 9, 12 express a divided interest: 
 
 4. O's No. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 enjoy "unitary" pulses: 
 O's No. 2, (4), (8), (9), (12) not very much: 
 
 O's No. 6, 10, 11 not at all: 
 
 O's No 3, 6, and 7 are the only ones who clearly committed 
 themselves to real enjoyment. The value of these rough answers 
 must not be pressed too far. Perhaps the most interesting thing 
 to notice is the small amount of pleasure that O No. 11 derives 
 from effects of acceleration, after having scored so high in the tests 
 in which it figures. 
 
 XXIX. Schedule tests: 
 
 A. Series 5: O hears S 5 (haphazard music) again, and states its 
 effect upon him (pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent). He then 
 hears it with schedule I (section XXIX, Appendix II), and later 
 grades the schedule with units (3, 2, 1) for the amount of interest 
 it adds to his hearing of the drum-beats. In case the schedule 
 clearly adds no interest, which was reported by one observer, a 
 grade of zero is allowed. It should be remembered, however,
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 171 
 
 that in all cases where 3, 2, and 1 are used as units, 1 is supposed 
 to cover the grade of "very low." After reporting on schedule I, 
 O is given a similar test with schedule II. 
 
 Results: 
 
 1. O's No. 4, 7, 8 announce pleasant effect from Series 5 (without 
 
 schedules) 
 
 O's No. 3, 6, 6, 10, 11, indifference or "very little interest": 
 O's No. 2, 9, 12, unpleasant effect: 
 
 2. Schedule I: (units of interest added to S 5) 
 O's No. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 13311302 (1)0 1 Total - 16 units. 
 
 No. 10 failed to express her grading in units, but reported 
 that E's humming the schedule added a small amount of 
 interest. 
 
 3. Schedule II: 
 
 O's No. 2 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 31321121 (2) 1 1 Total = 18 units. 
 
 O No. 10 found no interest in Schedule II except when 
 hummed, but in that case it added more interest than Sched- 
 ule I. 
 
 B. Series 1: (Pater) 
 
 1. O's No. 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 announce pleasant effect from S 1 (with- 
 out schedules): 
 
 O's No. 2, 6, 6, 7, indifference: 
 
 O No. 9, unpleasant effect: 
 
 (no report was received from O No. 12) : 
 
 2. Schedule I: 
 
 O's No. 2 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 32322322 (1) 2 Total = 21 units. 
 
 3. Schedule II: 
 
 O's No. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 23311201 (0) 1 2 Total - 16 units. 
 
 The reports for Schedule I in connection with the passage 
 of prose from Pater is significant. It means that ten observers 
 out of eleven (O No. 1, having made the drum-beat records, 
 could not take part in the test) found various degrees of satis- 
 faction in listening to a series of prose beats, according to a
 
 172 APPENDIX III 
 
 schedule which imposed upon the series an elastic temporal 
 unit, grouped in three-time. What is more significant is that 
 three of the observers reported the highest grade of added interest 
 (3 meaning "very much") and six reported a grade of 2. One 
 notable fact, of course, is that O No. 11, whose rank in the tests 
 for accuracy in syncopation and the reproduction of the "swing" 
 series was among the highest, reports so little interest in the 
 schedules, as a means of organizing elusive impressions of 
 rhythm. On the other hand, it should be remembered that 
 this observer professes no interest either in verse or literary 
 style. 
 
 XXX. Questionnaire : 
 
 1. O's No. 4, 7, and 12 feel that they can enjoy the rhythm of a 
 passage, at times, without any motor response. O No. 4's 
 enjoyment is concerned with the discovery of amusing or un- 
 expected organization (as in following the drum-beat records 
 with a schedule). O No. 12's experience seems to be concerned 
 with sound images; O No. 7's, with images of a more indefi- 
 nite nature. All the other eight observers depend upon motor 
 response for then- rhythmic experiences. 
 
 2. All the O's, except No. 3, find that a motor response must be 
 continued in the form of a series in order to be satisfactory. It 
 must always be equivalent to "beating time" in some way. 
 
 3. All the O's report that an elastic unit (accelerating and retarding) 
 is necessary in attempting to beat time to prose. O No. 8 makes 
 the qualification that for short passages one can conceive of 
 beating a strict time-unit. 
 
 4. All the O's, except O No. 2, who failed to find the question 
 clear, agree that the recurrence of groups of beats irrespective 
 of a time-unit is not so pleasurable as when the groups recur 
 in connection with a time-unit. Some of the O's are very 
 emphatic about this. O No. 10 declares that the recurrence 
 would be "very disagreeable" unless "periodic." This seems 
 to be very strong evidence against the possibility of founding 
 a theory of versification upon anything but a temporal basis 
 (time, of course, meaning not objective, but subjective time). 
 It must not be denied, however, that a certain amount of 
 pleasure ensues from the recognition of mere recurrence. The 
 point is that every rhythmic "impression" seems, with this 
 group of O's, to be heightened as soon as it is felt to be organized 
 upon a time basis.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 173 
 
 XXXI. Unitary music : (first test) 
 
 The O's pass judgment upon passages in the music of Cyril Scott, 
 in which the rhythm is delivered separately from the melody and 
 harmony. 
 
 "Unitary" means that the time unit is felt as a series of pulses, 
 not grouped according to a fixed scheme, such as two-time, three- 
 time, etc., continued throughout. The unit, therefore, in its con- 
 ception, is more like the "boom" "boom" "boom" of a 
 tom-tom, very much reduced, of course. It continually falls into 
 groups of some sort, but the point is that no one form of grouping 
 is repeated throughout, as a fixed pattern. 
 
 The results for the passage used in the first test are as follows: 
 
 O No. 1: first hearing: rhythm interesting, but the unit vague. 
 
 second hearing: rhythm more interesting, fundamental 
 unit clear, not repeated as a group; i.e., repeated 
 as "unitary pulses." 
 No. 2: 1st: partly pleasant. 
 
 2nd: agreeable, O felt unitary pulses. 
 O No. 3: 1st: indifferent, O felt unit (?). 
 
 2nd: more pleasant. 
 O No. 4: 1st: very pleasant, O felt a unit. 
 
 2nd: element of surprise gives pleasure. 
 O No. 5: 1st: pleasant, O felt a unit. 
 
 2nd: interested, O felt unitary pulses. 
 O No. 6: 1st: unpleasant, O felt no pulse. 
 
 2nd: confused, O felt no pulse. 
 O No. 7: 1st: pleasant, O felt a unit. 
 
 2nd: pleasant. 
 O No. 8: 1st: indifferent, O felt no unit. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, felt a unit. 
 O No. 9: 1st: unpleasant, O felt no unit. 
 
 2nd: more pleasant, O felt unitary pulses. 
 O No. 10: 1st: interesting because of " acceleration," unit vague. 
 
 2nd: more interesting because of "variety," O felt two 
 
 units. 
 O No. 11: 1st: pleasant, O felt unitary pulses. 
 
 2nd: more interesting, O still felt the unitary pulses. 
 O No. 12: 1st: interesting, unit vague. 
 
 2nd: interesting, O felt unitary pulses. 
 
 Eight of the O's found the rhythm of the passage to some 
 extent pleasant on the first hearing; all of the O's, with the
 
 174 APPENDIX HI 
 
 exception of No. 6, found it pleasant on a second hearing. Six 
 of them felt unitary pulses as the underlying temporal basis 
 for the series of beats. 
 
 XXXII. Unitary pulses: (as a form of motor reaction) 
 
 The following O's reported the recurrence of groups in a ten- 
 second exercise of their "most natural" motor reaction: 
 
 O No. 1 : complicated groups. 
 O's No. 2, 4, 8 : groups of fours. 
 O's No. 10 and 12 : groups of fours. 
 
 The following felt unitary pulses: 
 
 O's No. 3, 6, 6, 7, 9, and 11. 
 
 In other words, six felt groups and six felt unitary pulses. O's 
 were asked to take their "favorite" type of motor reaction and 
 continue it "at a rate which seems pleasant" to them. Those who 
 deny that the pleasant experience of O's No. 3, 6, 6, 7, 9, and 11 
 is "rhythmic" will have to invent new terms to cover the case. 
 As it is, there is little room for attacking Lanier's statement that 
 there is "rhythm" in a recurring temporal series, whether the unit 
 be grouped or not by the superimposition of accents. The real 
 facts about such a series of unitary pulses have been stated before. 
 No series can exist without some element of contrast, since we 
 cannot become conscious of recurrence until cessation has occurred. 
 The very word pulse implies gradation of intensity. What we mean 
 by unitary pulses, however, is that we do not consciously separate 
 this gradation into clear-cut segments, labelled "one" and "two," 
 or "one, two, three," etc. When we group these pulses into two's 
 and three's, we have changed the smooth up-and-down pulse curve 
 into a more angular progression, with two or more well-defined 
 steps for each dip of the line. The individual steps can be in them- 
 selves either smooth unitary pulses, or be redivided into recogniz- 
 able, smaller steps. 
 
 XXXIII. Unitary music: (second test) 
 
 The O's pass judgment upon the rhythm of a second passage 
 from the music of Cyril Scott. 
 
 Results: 
 
 O No. 1: 1st hearing: pleasant, the arrangement of beats in 
 
 groups of varying size confused the 
 
 unit to some extent. 
 2nd hearing: pleasant, unit no longer confused by the 
 
 group changes.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATA 175 
 
 O No. 2: 1st: unpleasant, unit confused. 
 
 2nd: more interesting, unit felt. 
 O No. 3: 1st: pleasant, unit felt. 
 
 2nd: indifferent, unit lost. 
 No. 4: 1st: pleasant, unit felt. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, unit felt. 
 No. 5: 1st: pleasant, vague unit felt. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, vague unit felt. 
 O No. 6: 1st: pleasant, unitary pulses felt. 
 
 2nd: more pleasant, unit felt. 
 O No. 7: 1st: pleasant, unit felt. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, unit felt. 
 O No. 8: 1st: interesting, vague unit felt. 
 
 2nd: interesting, unit felt, (objected to variety of 
 
 groups) 
 No. 9: 1st: indifferent, unit felt. 
 
 2nd: indifferent, unit felt, (objected to variety of 
 
 groups) 
 O No. 10: 1st: (statement of affection omitted), unit felt. 
 
 2nd: (statement of affection omitted), unit felt. 
 O No. 11 : (pleasant, unit felt) data incomplete. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, unit felt. 
 O No. 12: 1st: indifferent, unit vague. 
 
 2nd: pleasant, unit vague. 
 
 Eight of the O's found the rhythm of the passage either pleas- 
 ant or "interesting" on the first hearing; nine found it pleasant- or 
 interesting on the second hearing. On the first hearing O No. 2 found 
 it unpleasant. O's No. 3 and 9 found it indifferent on the second 
 hearing, but no one found it unpleasant. 
 
 XXXIV. Factors in organizing drum-beat series: 
 
 Each of the six organizing factors, or "suppositions" presented 
 to the observers, were graded by them with units (3, 2, 1, 0), accord- 
 ing to the degree that they "assist or do not assist" in explaining, 
 or rendering less "puzzling," elusive impressions or rhythm in 
 prose-beats such as those in Series 1 (Walter Pater). 3 means 
 "very much assistance"; 2, "considerable assistance"; 1, "a small 
 amount of assistance"; 0, "none." 
 Hypothetical factors: 
 
 1. An elastic time-unit, grouped throughout in two's, or through- 
 out in three's, etc. 
 
 2. An elastic unit, grouped in stretches of some one smaller group,
 
 176 APPENDIX III 
 
 but capable of changing from a stretch of two's to a stretch of 
 three's, etc. 
 
 3. The possibilities of syncopation, as a means of correlating seem- 
 ingly irregular beats with an under-unit of time. 
 
 4. The possibilities of dividing the fundamental time-intervals 
 into smaller intervals, but quite spontaneously (as occurred in 
 the first passage from the music of Cyril Scott) not accord- 
 ing to a scheme that could be anticipated. 
 
 5. Elastic unitary pulses (as occurred in both passages from Cyril 
 Scott), with the added possibility, evidently in the second 
 passage, of grouping the pulses in clusters of constantly varying 
 size. 
 
 6. The imposition of a humming tune upon the series. 
 
 The grades for the six organizing factors, in their degree of 
 helpfulness, are as follows: 
 
 O's No. 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 Factor 1: 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 = 21 units 
 
 2: 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 = 15 
 
 3: 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 = 13 
 
 4: 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 = 20 
 
 5: 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 = 17 
 
 6: 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 2-20 
 
 11 12 9 6 9 18 6 12 3 9 11 
 
 The maximum possibility is 18 units of assistance (roughly 
 estimated). 
 
 Arrangement of O's in relative order, according to gross amount 
 of assistance, reported as obtainable from the suppositions: 
 
 O No. 7 : 100% of the maximum (18) 
 
 3, 9: 67 
 
 2,12: 61 
 
 4,6,11: 50 
 
 6, 8: 33 
 
 10: 17 
 
 Arrangement of the six factors in relative order, according to 
 the total number of units assigned to each (out of a possible 33) : 
 
 Factor 1: 64% of the maximum (33) 
 
 4, 6: 61 
 
 5: 52 
 
 2: 45 
 
 3: 39
 
 EXPERIMENTAL DATAJ 177 
 
 An elastic unit (factor 1), accelerating and retarding, but grouped 
 consistently, was judged by all the observers, without exception, 
 to be of more or less assistance in the subjective organization of 
 prose-beats. Spontaneous substitution (factor 4) and tune-hum- 
 ming (factor 6) were very close to it in value. No. 10 graded syn- 
 copation (factor 3) zero, as might have been expected. So also, 
 one or two others who would be classified as passively rhythmic. 
 No. 7 and No. 12, both of whom may be regarded as, at any rate, 
 not passive, gave it the highest grade. All the factors, including 
 unitary pulses, figure prominently in the experiences of No. 7. 
 
 Nothing would be more misleading than to put too general an 
 interpretation upon the data listed in this appendix. The tables 
 must be regarded simply as the recorded results for twelve observ- 
 ers, superficially tested, with regard to a few of the complex proc- 
 esses which contribute to rhythmic experience. Suggestion, no 
 doubt, influenced many of the judgments announced. Some of 
 the tests for individual difference, as, for instance, the one for 
 accuracy in reproducing an accelerating series of intervals (Ap- 
 pendix III, section vii, 7) indicate that in some particulars, at least, 
 the errors of the twelve observers represent a distribution abnor- 
 mally ideal for so limited a group. It approaches the kind of dis- 
 tribution that the old-time theorists took pleasure in claiming for 
 humanity at large. But this particular grouping may easily be re- 
 garded as a matter of coincidence. In some tests, in fact, the devia- 
 tions have completely failed to follow the "normal" arrangement, 
 crowding together first at one extreme, and then at the other. The 
 experimenter feels, however, that the observers, as a whole, were 
 a very satisfactory lot. They appear to be, at any rate, more 
 representative, in certain points of individual difference, than one 
 usually dares to hope for in so small a sampling.
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 I. In "Experimental Procedure" and "Experimental Data" (Ap- 
 
 pendices II and III) : 
 E - the experimenter 
 
 O = the observer or subject upon whom the experiment is made 
 tsm = the time-sense machine 
 kymo = kymograph 
 metr = metronome 
 
 AVE = Average Variable Error (see p. 131) 
 GCE = Gross Constant Error (see p. 131) 
 uas = unit-accuracy simple 
 GV - Grading Value, etc., etc. (see p. 131 ff.) 
 
 II. In "Bibliography" and notes throughout the text: 
 Abh. = Abhandlung N. S. = New Series 
 
 Am. = American Norm. = Normale 
 Angew. = angewandt - Path. - Pathologique 
 
 Arch. = Archiv or Archives Phil. = Philosophy, etc. 
 
 Assoc. = Association Psy. = Psychology, etc. 
 
 Ber. = Bericht Rep. = Report 
 
 d. = der, die, das, etc. Rev. = Review 
 
 Ges. = Gesellschaft Ser. = Series 
 
 Inter. = International, etc. St. = Studies, Studien 
 
 J. = Journal Trans. = Transactions 
 
 Kl. = Klasse u. = und 
 
 kon. = koniglich Wiss. = Wissenschaft 
 
 Mod. =- Modern z. = zur, zum 
 
 Monog. = Monograph Zeitsch. = Zeitschrift 
 
 179
 
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 INDEX 
 
 Accelerando, 52, 68 
 
 Accelerating and retarding units, 
 
 xxii, 3, 10, 64, 89 
 Acceleration, xx, 3, 10, 11, 63, 66, 
 
 94, 165, 166 
 
 Acceleration experiment, 50, 54 ff., 
 
 95, 105, 106, 111, 112, 116, 
 133 ff. 
 
 Accent, 4, 8, 13, 23, 31, 33, 36, 
 37, 40, 42, 57, 68, 75, 78, 79, 
 82,93 
 
 Adjustment, 66, 67, 95 
 
 Aggressively rhythmic observers, 
 xix, xx, 16, 61, 84, 88, 94, 101 
 
 "Agogic accent," 51, 52, 61, 167 
 
 Alliterative verse, 21, 38, 84, 85 
 
 American Indians, xix, xxi, 6 
 
 Andrews, 48 
 
 Anglo-Saxon charters, 96 
 
 Anglo-Saxon verse, 22, 38, 84, 85 
 
 Apaches, 89 
 
 Apparatus, 103 ff. 
 
 Appropriate rhythm, xxii, 66, 91, 
 
 96, 97, 100, 101, 154 ff. 
 Aristotle, ix, 39 
 Artifice, 98 
 
 Artistic adjustment, 97 
 Attention, xix, 18, 22, 42, 69, 86, 
 
 89 
 Auditory imagery, 10, 49, 94, 95, 
 
 109, 131, 151 
 
 "Authorized Version," The, 98 
 Automatic syncopation, 12, 65, 99 
 Automatism, 23, 76, 99 
 Average Variable Error, 50, 60, 
 
 131 
 
 Balance, 1, 80, 82, 84, 85, 93 
 Beethoven, 66, 92 
 Benussi, 34, 163-165 
 Binet and Courtier, 19 
 Binet and Simon, 87 
 Bingham, 24 
 Boas, xix, 89 
 Body-balance, 82 
 Body-rhythm, 24, 82 
 Bohme, 28 
 Bolton, 17, 48 
 Breath-phenomena, 4, 18, 65, 67, 
 
 118, 148, 158, 159 
 Breath-rate, 65, 109, 130 
 Brown, W., 30, 31 
 Browne, Sir T., 29 
 Browning, 77 
 Briicke, 17 
 Biicher, 27 
 
 Caprice, 97 
 
 Centroids, 25 
 
 Chopin, 2, 45, 51, 92, 123, 168-170 
 
 "Christabel," 26 
 
 Cicero, ix 
 
 Climax, 57 
 
 Coincidence the criterion of verse 
 
 experience, 75, 91, 98 
 Coleridge, 26 
 
 Complex coordination, 113, 144 ff. 
 Coordination, 4, 15, 77, 113 
 Coordination theory, xxiii, 13 ff., 
 
 91 
 
 Correlations, 148, 149 
 Criterion of prose experience, 75, 
 
 91,98 
 
 189
 
 190 INDEX 
 
 Criterion of verse experience, 75, Gordon, K., 82 
 
 91, 98 Grammatical accent, 13, 79, 93, 96 
 
 Curtis, N., xxi Gross Constant Error, 50, 60, 131 
 
 Grouping, 72, 78, 89, 90, 93, 94, 98 
 
 Dancing, xxii, 37 Guest, 19, 22 
 
 Data, 139 ff. Gummere, 19, 22 
 De Quincey, 117, 152, 153, 156 
 
 "Development" of prose rhythm, Haphazard arrangements, 2, 3, 
 
 39, 96 63, 95 
 
 Dickens, 14 Haphazard series subjectively or- 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ix, 39 ganized, xxii, 73, 84, 88, 90, 94 
 
 Drozynski, 40 Harmony memory, 114, 150 
 
 Drum-beat rhythm, 2, 7, 15, 90, Hopi Indian, the, 86, 87 
 
 117, 152 ff. Hurst and McKay, 19, 20 
 
 Ease, 66, 84, 90, 97, 100, 154 ff . Illusions, 13, 33, 34 
 
 East Indian music, 6, 72 Imagery tests, 109, 131 
 
 Economy, 97 Imitative facility, 61 
 
 Elastic units, xx, xxii, 3, 10, 47, Indian's sense of rhythm, the, xix, 
 
 61, 63-65, 71, 87, 89, 95, 175-177 7, 87 
 
 Elman, Mischa, 48 Indifference point in judgments of 
 Elusive impressions of rhythm, 14, time, 23, 32, 165 
 
 62, 63, 81, 91, 168, 175 Individual difference, ix, 10, 48, 
 Errors of resonance, 25 54, 94, 95, 129 ff . 
 Experimental data, 129 ff. Intensity memory, 116, 151, 152 
 Experimental procedure, 107 ff . Intervals, empty and filled, 33, 34, 
 
 164, 165 
 
 Felicity of phrase mistaken for Irregular movements, 32 
 
 rhythm, 81, 97 Isocrates, 39 
 Filled intervals, 33, 34, 164, 165 
 
 Fillmore, 7 James, Henry, 2, 29, 123, 168, 
 Fitness, 84, 91, 97, 100, 154 ff. 169, 170 
 
 Five's and seven's, reaction to, James, William, 16 
 
 120, 160, 161 
 
 Five-seven rhythm, 5, 6, 7, 95, 161 Kinsesthesis, x, 40, 71. See Motor 
 Folk-dancing, xxii reaction 
 
 Free verse, 74 ff ., 98 Kwakiutl Indians, xix, 89 
 
 "Gadya" prose, 79 Laboratories described, 103 ff. 
 
 "General Trend" in swing experi- Landry, 36 
 
 ment, 133 ff. Lanier, 19, 22, 43, 174 
 
 Goethe, 29 Lidell, 42
 
 INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 Lipsky, 29 
 
 Lowell, Miss Amy, xii, 80 
 
 MacDougall, 23 
 
 Masters, 79 
 
 Marbe, 29 
 
 Melody in speech, 21, 96. See 
 
 Pitch 
 
 Memory, 66, 82 
 Memory tests, 114-116, 119, 
 
 133 ff., 140-142, 149-152, 159 
 Metre, xx, 66, 67, 83, 100 
 Meumann, 3, 8, 10, 17 ff., 23, 45, 
 
 49 
 
 Meyer, 19 
 Miller, D. C., 104 
 Miner, 24 
 Mistaken ideas about prose 
 
 rhythm, 81, 97 
 Miyaki, 3, 27 
 Mood, 66, 67, 69, 73 
 Motor imagery, 94, 95, 109, 131 
 Motor reaction, x, 3, 4, 14, 15, 
 
 40, 71, 100, 160, 161 
 Motor rhythm, 19 
 Motor theory for melody, 24 
 Motor theory of rhythm, 24 
 Miiller, 106, 131 
 Muscular contractions hi rhythm, 
 
 24, 31, 65, 89 
 
 Muscidus tensor tympani, 31, 65 
 Music, xxi, 2, 45, 51, 66, 72, 73, 
 
 92, 101, 123, 127, 167-170, 
 
 173-175 
 
 Musical enjoyment, 41 
 Musical "swing," 122, 167 
 Music, modern, 44 
 Music, unitary pulses in, 72, 127, 
 
 173-175 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, 117, 152, 153, 
 
 156 
 New Standard, 13 ff. 
 
 Observer No. 1, 2, 12, 59, 60, 62, 
 65, 94, 130-167, 173, 174 
 
 Observer No. 7, 2, 7, 14, 63, 64, 
 89, 90, 94, 130-177 
 
 Observer No. 10, 10, 14, 49, 59, 
 60, 94, 130-177 
 
 Observer No. 12, 63, 90, 130-177 
 
 Observers classified, 130-177 
 
 Observers, list of, 130 
 
 Occult balance, 1, 8, 82, 85, 86, 93 
 
 Old English verse, 22, 38, 84, 85 
 
 Omahas, 7 
 
 Organizing factors, 94, 128, 175 ff. 
 
 Origin of music, 32 
 . Origin of poetry, 34 
 
 Origin of tune-images, 31 
 
 Passively rhythmic observers, 16, 
 
 88, 94, 95, 100 
 Pater, 2, 62, 63, 66, 67, 70, 73, 80, 
 
 99, 117, 123, 153, 156 
 Patterns of time and stress, 66, 67, 
 
 75,86 
 Phonograph experiment, 2, 12, 
 
 122, 168 
 Photographs of speech, x, 55, 56, 
 
 103, 104, 119, 140 ff. 
 Pitch, 40, 42, 69, 93, 96 
 Pitch memory, 49, 60, 114, 149, 
 
 150 
 
 Pitch patterns, 75, 86 
 Poe, 28 
 
 Poetic prose, ix, 77, 79, 98 
 "Possibility" scanning, 96, 118, 
 
 157, 158 
 
 Precision, 50, 60 
 Primitive music, 6, 7 
 Primitive rhythmic sense, 6, 27 
 Progressive movement, 51, 53, 56, 
 
 57,60 
 Prose experience explained, xxii 
 
 note, 75, 91, 98
 
 192 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Prose intervals objectively hap- 
 hazard, 90 
 Prose rhythm, xxii, 14, 37, 38, 72, 
 
 75, 81, 90, 91, 97 
 Puffer, 4, 8, 21, 82 
 Pulse-consciousness, 118, 158 
 Pulse-rate, 64, 65, 109, 130 
 Pulses, unitary. See Unitary 
 pulses 
 
 Questionnaires, 49, 108, 124, 127, 
 130, 170, 172 
 
 "Rag-time," 4, 68 
 
 Ratan Devi, 72, 73 
 
 Regnaud, 79 
 
 "Relativity Conditions," 134 ff. 
 
 Rhetoric, 98 
 
 Rhythm, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31, 36, 
 
 88, 89, etc. 
 
 Rhythmic experience x, 69 ff., 91 
 Rhythmic tunes, xx, 3, 5, 6, 11, 
 
 12, 14, 52, 62 ff., 75, 88, 95, 
 
 99, 101, 176, 177 
 Rhythm of thought, 17, 42, 87, 92 
 Rhythm of work, 27, 32 
 Ribot, 40 
 Riemann, 51, 167 
 Ritardando, 52, 68 
 Ruckmich, x, 40, 41, 49 
 Ruskin, 14, 29 
 
 Saint-Saens, 50 
 
 Saintsbury, ix, 39 
 
 Sanf ord and Triplett, 26 
 
 Sanskrit prose, 79 
 
 Saran, 36 
 
 Sargent, 48 
 
 Scanning, 14, 96, 100, 158 
 
 Schedules, 2, 63, 64, 125 ff., 170 ff. 
 
 Schipper, xi, 37, 38, 85 
 
 Schumann, xxi, 66, 72, 92 
 
 Scott, Cyril, 44, 72, 73, 92, 127, 
 
 173, 174, 176 
 Scripture, 3, 25, 26, 48 
 Seashore, 42, 48, 123 
 Secondary rhythm, 98 
 Sense of rhythm, 2, 22, 48, 49, 91 
 Sense of swing, xx, 47-61, 94 
 Sense of tune, 14, 16, 60 
 Seven-five syncopation, 5, 6, 7, 
 
 95, 161 
 
 Shakespeare, 79 
 Shaw and Wrinch, 20 
 Sievers, ix, xi, 9, 20, 21, 37, 84, 
 
 85, 96, 105 
 Smith, M. K., 18, 27 
 Sound-photographs, x, 55, 56, 93, 
 
 103, 104, 119, 140 ff., 159 
 Speech-melody, 21, 96 
 Spontaneity, 66, 84, 90, 97, 100 
 Spontaneous substitution, 10, 70, 
 
 92, 94, 100, 176, 177 
 Sprachmelodie, 21, 96 
 Sprechtakte, 20 
 Squire, xi, 27-29, 37, 44 
 Standards, 84, 90, 91, 97 
 Steadiness, 50, 60 
 Steenstrup, xxii 
 Stetson, 24, 106 
 "Stressers," xxi, 77, 81 ff., 92, 98, 
 
 99 
 Stress-patterns, 14, 67, 75, 76, 79, 
 
 83, 86, 95, 96 note, 100 
 Subjective grouping, 13, 90, 94, 
 
 110 
 
 Subjective rhythm test, 110, 132 
 Subjective time, 64, 68, 88 
 Subjective units, 47, 64, 68, 69 
 Substitution, xxui note, 3, 5, 7, 8, 
 
 14, 66, 92, 100, 176, 177 
 Substitutional symmetry, 8, 86, 93 
 Subtlety, 60, 78, 95 
 Swing, xx, 94, 97, 122, 162 f
 
 INDEX 
 
 193 
 
 Syllables, 25, 66, 75, 93 
 
 Symmetry, 78, 85, 98 
 
 Syncopation, xx note, 3, 4, 5, 9, 
 11, 12, 14, 65, 66, 67, 70, 77, 
 92, 94, 95, 100, 101, 113, 119, 
 120 ff., 143, 144, 159-161, 176, 
 177 
 
 Syncopation tests, 113, 119 ff., 
 143, 144, 159-161 
 
 Systems of grading always danger- 
 ous, 143 
 
 Tapping, 65, 70, 97, 99, 101, 148, 
 
 167 
 "Temple of Memphis." See Cyril 
 
 Scott 
 
 Tempo, 9, 18, 61 
 Tempo rubato, 50-52, 61 
 Tennyson, 77 
 
 Tension-summits, 87, 89, 93 
 Thomson, 42, 43 
 Thorndike, E. L., 41 
 Thought-rhythm, 17, 42, 87, 92 
 Time-basis for rhythm, 22, 90 
 "Timers," 66, 74, 75, 80, 87, 89- 
 
 91, 98, 101 
 
 Time-patterns, 66, 75, 86 
 Time-sense, 31, 98, 99, 101 
 Titchener, 41 
 Tom-tom, 73, 89 
 Tone-color, 14, 66, 67, 69, 73, 75, 
 
 78, 81, 82, 93, 97, 99 
 Tone-color mistaken for rhythm, 
 
 81,97 
 "Traumerei," xxi, 72, 73 
 
 Two-beat theory for Old English 
 
 verse, 22, 38 
 Types, xix note 
 
 Under-units, 66 
 
 Unit-accuracy, 94, 110, 131, 144 ff. 
 Unitary music, 127, 173-175 
 Unitary pulses, xx, xxii, 3, 8, 44, 
 47, 65, 69, 71, 87, 127, 173, 174 
 Unit of time, 20 
 
 Vance, 42 
 
 Variable Error, 131 
 
 Velocity, 51, 53, 61 
 
 Verse, 66, 75, 78 note, 82, 83, 91 
 
 Verse experience explained, 75, 91, 
 
 98 
 
 Versification, 36, 38, 84, 85 
 Vers libre, 74 ff., 98 
 Verrier, 34-36 
 Visual imagery, 109, 131 
 Visual rhythm, 24 
 Vocal step, 20, 35 
 Voice-photographs, 55, 56, 103, 
 
 104, 119, 140 ff. 
 Vowel-quality memory, 10, 49, 
 
 115, 151 
 
 Walking-rate, 11, 12, 31, 50, 64, 
 
 113, 148 
 
 Wallin, 22, 77, 91 
 Weight, 36, 37, 75, 86, 96 
 Weld, 41, 42 
 Woodrow, 40 
 Wundt, 1, 3, 8, 10, 13, 31-34, 46, 
 
 51, 62, 90, 149
 
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