244 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL increase the distance entirely outruns the tendency to de- crease the distance. Another item which gives a distinct character to the style of life is rhythm. It plays an important part in nearly all aspects of our lives and is manifest in a great number of our activities. Rhythm satisfies the two fundamental needs for difference and similarity, for change and stabil- ity. The elements of each rhythmic period show quantita- tive and qualitative difference, ascent and descent, and the regular repetition of the periods shows uniformity and similarity. The individual, social, factual, and historical life-series express their style and abstract scheme in the simplicity or complexity of their rhythm, in the length or shortness of its periods, in their regularity or irregularity, and, finally, in the presence or absence of such periods. In our modern culture a great many appearances which formerly followed a certain rhythm have now become con- tinuous or irregular. Modern man through his conquest of nature and his relative independence of nature has become more and more independent of her rhythmic periods. Peri- odic famines so characteristic of primitive agriculture have completely disappeared. The industrial communities have become independent of the rhythm of agricultural life. The permanent middleman has made us independent of the weekly or monthly or yearly market. But the development of the style of life is not a simple change from rhythm to an unaccentuated series from which all rhythm has disappeared. This is the case only in cer- tain spheres of life. In other spheres rhythm is introduced where it was formerly absent. Manual labor among mod- ern people is done in rhythmic periods of activity and rest. Primitive man shows irregular periods of great energy and complete laziness. Modern man has regular meal hours; primitive man eats when he feels like it or when he can.