Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions • Paragraph 6
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The distinction in effect is this: Imagination is the presence of the whole in the part, the apprehension of identity in difference; Fancy is a power of fixation, arrangement, and ornament. Imagination, in its highest exercise, is essentially paradoxical, reconciling opposites into a new and living synthesis; Fancy, in its operation, is essentially additive and decorative.