Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Any one who wishes to know the gist of what has been said on the subject of the basis of rhythm, without the labour of studying many volumes, will probably find this pamphlet useful. To say that it fully agrees with none of its predecessors is no disparagement of it, for no two of these agree with each other. It at least contains a correct record of the rhythmical phenomena of English speech as these present themselves to one who has tried to cast aside all prepossessions and foregone conclusions, and has simply listened to what he himself does and what he hears. My chief aim has been to establish the basic facts of English rhythm; the task of elucidating the relation of our rhythm and its variations, on the one hand, to thought, emotion and the expression of these, on the other, lies above and beyond my province, and it is doubtful, indeed, whether such a task can be profitably undertaken without some preliminary agree ment as to the underlying facts.

Any one who wishes to know the gist of what has been said on the subject of the basis of rhythm, without the labour of studying many volumes, will probably find this pamphlet useful. To say that it fully agrees with none of its predecessors is no disparagement of it, for no two of these agree with each other. It at least contains a correct record of the rhythmical phenomena of English speech as these present themselves to one who has tried to cast aside all prepossessions and foregone conclusions, and has simply listened to what he himself does and what he hears. My chief aim has been to establish the basic facts of English rhythm; the task of elucidating the relation of our rhythm and its variations, on the one hand, to thought, emotion and the expression of these, on the other, lies above and beyond my province, and it is doubtful, indeed, whether such a task can be profitably undertaken without some preliminary agree ment as to the underlying facts.