The imagination modifies images, and gives unity to variety; it sees all things in one.... There is the epic imagination, the perfection of which is in Milton; and the dramatic, of which Shakspeare is the absolute master.
Coleridge Table Talk June 23, '34.
Fancy keeps the material image prominent and clear, and works not only with it, but for it; imagination always uses the material object as the minister of something greater than itself,[211] and often almost loses the object in the spiritual idea with which she has associated it, and for which alone she values it. Fancy flits about the surface, and is airy and playful, sometimes petty and sometimes false; imagination goes to the heart of things, and is deep, earnest, serious, and seeks always and everywhere for essential truth. Fancy sets off, variegates, and decorates; imagination transforms and exalts. Fancy delights and entertains; imagination moves and thrills. Imagination is not only poetic or literary, but scientific, philosophical, and practical. By imagination the architect sees the unity of a building not yet begun, and the inventor sees the unity and varied interactions of a machine never yet constructed, even a unity that no human eye ever can see, since when the machine is in actual motion, one part may hide the connecting parts, and yet all keep the unity of the inventor's thought. By imagination a Newton sweeps sun, planets, and stars into unity with the earth and the apple that is drawn irresistibly to its surface, and sees them all within the circle of one grand law. Science, philosophy, and mechanical invention have little use for fancy, but the creative, penetrative power of imagination is to them the breath of life, and the condition of all advance and success. See also [FANCY]; [IDEA].
[B] The whole discussion from which the quotation is taken is worthy of, and will well repay, careful study.
IMMEDIATELY.
Synonyms:
| at once, | instanter, | presently, | straightway, |
| directly, | instantly, | right away, | this instant, |
| forthwith, | now, | right off, | without delay. |
The strong and general human tendency to procrastination is shown in the progressive weakening of the various words in this group. Immediately primarily signifies without the intervention of anything as a medium, hence without the intervention of any, even the briefest, interval or lapse of time. By and by, which was once a synonym, has become an antonym of immediately, meaning at some (perhaps remote) future time. Directly, which once meant with no intervening time, now means after some little while; presently no longer means in this very present, but before very long. Even immediately is sliding from its instantaneousness, so that we are fain to substitute at once, instantly, etc., when we would make promptness emphatic. Right away and right off are vigorous conversational expressions in the United States.