nction 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.

_Form the Reference-Book Habit_

Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word--press your
study until you have mastered its individual shades of meaning and
usage. Mere fluency is sure to become despicable, but accuracy never.
The dictionary contains the crystallized usage of intellectual giants.
No one who would write effectively dare despise its definitions and
discriminations. Think, for example, of the different meanings of
_mantle_, or _model_, or _quantity_. Any late edition of an unabridged
dictionary is good, and is worth making sacrifices to own.

Books of synonyms and antonyms--used cautiously, for there are few
_perfect_ synonyms in any language--will be found of great help.
Consider the shades of meanings among such word-groups as _thief,
peculator, defaulter, embezzler, burglar, yeggman, robber, bandit,
marauder, pirate_, and many more; or the distinctions among _Hebrew,
Jew, Israelite, and Semite_. Remember that no book of synonyms is
trustworthy unless used with a dictionary. "A Thesaurus of the English
Language," by Dr. Francis A. March, is expensive, but full and
authoritative. Of smaller books of synonyms and antonyms there are
plenty.[33]

Study the connectives of English speech. Fernald's book on this title is
a mine of gems. Unsuspected pitfalls lie in the loose use of _and, or,
for, while_, and a score of tricky little connectives.

Word derivations are rich in suggestiveness. Our English owes so much to
foreign tongues and has