Stevenson shows how he rose from imitation to originality in the use of words.

He had particular reference to the formation of his literary style, but words

are the raw materials of style, and his excellent example may well be followed

judiciously by the public speaker. Words _in their relations_ are vastly more

important than words considered singly.

 

Whenever I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a

thing was said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there was either

some conspicuous force or some happy distinction in the style, I must sit down

at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it;

and tried again, and was again unsuccessful, and always unsuccessful; but at

least in these vain bouts I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in

construction and cooerdination of parts.

 

I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlitt, to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir

Thomas Browne, to Defoe, to Hawthorne, to Montaigne.

 

That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write; whether I have profited or

not, that is the way. It was the way Keats learned, and there never was a finer

temperament for literature than Keats'.

 

It is the great point of these imitations that there still shines beyond the

student's reach, his inimitable model. Let him try as he please, he is still

sure of failure; and it is an old and very true saying that failure is the only

highroad to success.