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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: long have practised the literary scales; and it is only after years
of such gymnastic that he can sit down at last, legions of words
swarming to his call, dozens of turns of phrase simultaneously
bidding for his choice, and he himself knowing what he wants to do
and (within the narrow limit of a man's ability) able to do it.
And 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 a very old
and a very true saying that failure is the only highroad to
success. I must have had some disposition to learn; for I clear-
sightedly condemned my own performances. I liked doing them
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