ct.

=Memorable Words.=--But by far the greatest number of stylistic words
owe their connotation not so much to their sound alone, as to their
capacity for evoking memories. They awake the psychologic process of
association. Such are the words which lie close to the heart of every
one's experience,--words like "home," "sorrow," "mother," "youth," and
"friends." Whenever such a word is used, it conveys to the reader or
the listener not only the specific meaning intended by the momentary
context, but also a subsidiary and subconscious recollection of many
phases of his personal experience. All of the indisputably magic words
possess this associative or _memorable_ quality. Saying one thing
definitely, they evoke a concordant harmony of subconscious and
shadowy suggestion. Expressing a message in the present, they recall
remembered beauty from the past. Thus it is with the words of those
two enchanted lines of Keats,--

"Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn."

They say much more than what they say. Conveying one meaning to the
reader, they remind him of many, many others.

=The Patterning of Syllables.=--But the choice of suggestive and
memorable words is only the first step toward mastery of style. The
perfect marriage of significance and sound is dependent not so much
upon the words themselves as upon the way in which they are arranged.
The art of style, like every other art, proceeds by an initial
selection of materials and a subsequent arrangement of them in
accordance with a pattern. In style, the pattern is of prime
importance; and therefore, in order to understand the witchery of
writing, we must next consider technically the patterning of words.

=Stevenson on Style.=--This phase of the subject has been clearly
expounded and deftly illustrated by Robert Louis Stevenson in his
essay "On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature."[9] This
essay is, so far as I know, the only existing treatise on the technic
of style which is of any practical value to the incipient artist. It
should therefore be read many times and mastered thoroughly by every
student of the mystery of writing. Since it is now easily accessible,
it will not be necessary here to do more than summarize its leading
points,--stating them in a slightly different way in order that they
may better fit the present context.

=The Pattern of Rhythm.=--Every normal sentence, unless it b