244 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
increase the distance entirely outruns the tendency to decrease
 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 stability.
 The elements of each rhythmic period show quantitative
 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 continuous
 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. Periodic
 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 certain
 spheres of life. In other spheres rhythm is introduced
where it was formerly absent. Manual labor among modern
 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.