Part of the data ring
ReadLength
Two extents, one measure

Manures and the principles of manuring vs Creative Evolution

Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.

Manures and the principles of manuring

133,220
words · 8h 53m
Longer
vs

Creative Evolution

132,316
words · 8h 49m

904words between them — 4 min of it

Manures and the principles of manuring is longer — 133,220 words against 132,316 for Creative Evolution, a difference of 904 words or about 4 min of extra reading. Creative Evolution is the harder read, at grade 14.4 against 10.6.

SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026

Side by side

Manures and the principles of manuringCreative Evolution
AuthorAikman, Charles MortonBergson, Henri
Words 133,220 132,316
Reading time at 250 wpm 8h 53m 8h 49m
Unique words 6,675 7,725
Sentences 7,226 4,642
Average sentence length 18.4 words 28.5 words
Reading grade 10.6 14.4
Reading ease 51.8 42.4
Long words 16.7% 17%

Highlighted cells are the larger figure — except reading ease, where higher means easier.

SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions, same counting rule·REVIEWED JUL 2026

How this is worked out

  1. Both texts are counted the same way, from the same source, with Gutenberg's header and licence footer struck first.
  2. The gap is stated in words and then in time at 250 words a minute — the rate is printed because a duration without one cannot be checked.
  3. Difficulty is compared on Flesch–Kincaid grade, which reads sentence and word length only. It cannot see irony or dialect, so treat it as a measure of surface, not of effort.
gap = |133,220 − 132,316| = 904 words
904 ÷ 250 wpm = 4 min of extra reading

Full methodology →

The second question

Which is longer, Manures and the principles of manuring or Creative Evolution?

Manures and the principles of manuring is longer — 133,220 words against 132,316 for Creative Evolution, a difference of 904 words or about 4 min of extra reading. Creative Evolution is the harder read, at grade 14.4 against 10.6.

Colophon

Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 27274 and no. 26163 — and from no other source. Neither book’s text is set on this site.

SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·US public domain·REVIEWED JUL 2026

Word counts and reading levels are computed from a specific public-domain edition and will differ from other editions and from other counting methods — see the method page.

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