156 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



ing and to that of imagination. But go on, my 

 dear what next ?" 



There was something so encouraging in my 

 uncle's manner of questioning me, that instead 

 of frightening, it helped me to think. " Per- 

 haps it is that which guides us in putting toge- 

 ther the materials which we have been selecting ; 

 or rather of arranging and suiting them to each 

 other; taste, I think." 



" Right, Bertha; taste adapts and redisposes 

 them in the best manner ; and the more or less 

 successfully as the judgment is more or less con- 

 sulted. Without taste and judgment, the ima- 

 gination would jumble them all together at ran- 

 dom, and would produce nothing but confusion 

 and deformity. Paintings and poems may con- 

 tain many beauties, and yet may totally fail in 

 giving satisfaction ; simply from the parts being 

 ill-assorted or, in other words, from a deficiency 

 of judgment in their combination." 



" But is there not another quality which is 

 essential in a poet? I mean, uncle, the power 

 of catching the resemblance of ideas ; that 

 which produces those beautiful allusions that 

 form the ornament of poetry." 



" You mean fancy the power of quickly 

 perceiving those delicate links, which connect the 

 most remote objects ; and which, however slight, 

 are sufficient for poetical analogies. The more 

 sober analogies, which suit the province of 



