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.
_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, 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.
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.