Now these differences between the imagination and the fancy hold, not only in
the way they lay hold of separate conceptions, but even in the points they occupy of time, for the fancy loves to run hither and thither in time, and to follow long
chains of circumstances from link to link; but the imagination, if it may, gets
holds of a moment or link in the middle that implies all the rest, and fastens
there. Hence Fuseli's aphorism,abstract oil painting, "Invention never suffers the action to expire,
nor the spectator's fancy to consume itself in preparation, or stagnate into
repose. It neither begins from the egg, nor coldly gathers the remains."
In Retsch's illustrations to Schiller's Kampf mit dem Drachen, we have an
instance, miserably feeble indeed, but characteristic, and suited to our present
purpose, of the detailing, finishing action of the fancy. The dragon is drawn
from head to tail, vulture eyes, serpent teeth, forked tongue, fiery crest,
armor, claws and coils as grisly as may be; his den is drawn, and all the dead
bones in it, and all the savage forest-country about it far and wide; we have
him from the beginning of his career to the end, devouring, rampant, victorious
over whole armies, gorged with death; we are present at all the preparations for
his attack, see him receive his death-wound, and our anxieties are finally
becalmed by seeing him lie peaceably dead on his back. paintings reproductions
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