"And" also has the value of an affix. It comes before a lot of little phrases, where it acts like glue, sticking that little phrase on to the rest--"and" if, "and" even, "and" though; a humble use, but necessary enough, allowing the mind to work in a soft material.
"And" has various rhetorical uses which are to be admired--you can make long lists with it.
So attractive is "and" to the human mind that it will often expand itself, developing like a lot of soap bubbles--"and so," "and moreover," "and also." But the best of all these phrases--the king of them--is "and also, what is more." It is the most familiar of all phrases in the mouths of politicians. Do violence to yourself, force yourself to listen to a politician making speeches in private conversation as is the politician's way. You will hear that phrase repeated. "And also, what is more." It is native to the tub-thumping fraternity. These things give a sentence the advantage of piling up wordy wealth, as it were, very satisfactory to the fatigued or the empty or the hesitant.
Those great men, our fathers, felt about "and" something reverend or peculiar, so that they hardly thought of it as a word, but as a sort of symbol. They put it at the end of the alphabet, calling it "ampersand." It is one of the worst things about our detestable time that this ancient national thing "ampersand" is forgotten. The old refrain used to be: a, b, c, ..., x, y, z, _ampersand_--that long word "ampersand," that fine ritual title, referred to the symbol "&" which "and" alone of words possesses. You find it in the old horn books. The children of England knew it by heart for centuries. But the modern flood came: it is gone.
The enemies of "and" will have it that a good style in English is to be obtained by cutting out "and." These are the same people who say that a good style is to be obtained by cutting out adjectives. There are no such short cuts. Also, to be an enemy of "and" is to be an enemy of all good things. It is to fear exuberance, which is the tide of life.
"And" has, again, rhythmical value, as in the ecclesiastical or liturgical line:
And Parson and Clerk and the Devil and all
--with hosts of other lines which dignify the vast storehouse of the English lyric.