THE FACT OF BEAUTY 269 



The second factor in our aesthetic delight is perceptual. 

 The ' form ' (in the widest sense) of what we contemplate 

 is significant for us and satisfies our feeling. Beauty in- 

 creases with significance of form, with the degree in which 

 meaning is suffused into material, or with the degree in 

 which the way is opened to us to give imaginative interpre- 

 tation. The aesthetic attitude, Professor Bosanquet says, " is 

 an attitude in which we imaginatively contemplate an object, 

 being able in that way to live in it as an embodiment of 

 our feeling ". We actively respond to what we enjoy looking 

 at, projecting ourselves into it, reading ourselves or some- 

 thing else into it, in an aesthetic illusion, which has some- 

 thing in common with make-believe forms of play, just as 

 these in turn are linked on to art. It is because of the im- 

 portance of this factor that many have been led to the idea, 

 which seems to us mistaken, that the quality of beauty is 

 altogether subjective. 



If the beautiful form which moves us is truly excellent, 

 it becomes more significant in all its details, in proportion 

 to the intensity of our aesthetic contemplation. The form 

 lends itself to more and more meaning. The imagination 

 receives a succession of liberating stimuli, one after the 

 other, according to the depth of the beauty of the object; 

 and the fact which seems to us to be outstanding is that 

 the lines and patterns and colours of living creatures go 

 to make up a ' form ' which almost never disappoints. 



In its highest reaches the imaginative perception rises 

 into the poet's vision, of which Blake speaks: — 



(I 



And before my way 

 A frowning^ thistle implores my stay. 

 What to others a trifle appears 

 Fills me full of smiles or tears; 



