141. ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 161

ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 161

IV. FROM IDENTIFICATION TO IMAGINATION. In the preceding pages we have dealt with the process, which is involved in the æsthetic experience, up to the point of identification with the human focus of the presented situation. Identification, as has already been stated, consists in the unification of the self-forgetful self of the percipient with the human focus of the situation, which, being freed from the elements of time, place and all that constitutes individuality, is a mere set of certain psycho- physical factors. Let us, therefore, now analyse the constituents of this set and find out how they are respon- sible for the peculiar nature of the æsthetic experience. As a rule, the appearance of the hero on the stage is never without a well defined purpose. As every purpose has an objective reference, it naturally involves a certain psycho-physical attitude. When, therefore, the spectator, identified with hero, faces a situation, the disposition comes to the forefront and the following constituents of the æsthetic personality are evoked .-

1. Taste not only keeps the attention fixed on the presented, but also does not allow any idea, that might arouse the consciousness of individuality in the spectator, to come to the foreground. II. THE POWER OF VISUALISATION (1) partly removes the shifting opaque barrier that divides the unconscious from the conscious: (2) unites the given with what is exposed from behind the barrier: and (3) puts the image so formed against the intellectual background and so constructs the world of imagination.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ÆSTHETIC IMAGE. It may be pointed out here that the dramatic presen- tation is but an idealised representation of historical or 21