CHAPTER X.

EMOTION IN ART. (a) POETRY AND LITERATURE.
So far we have dealt with Emotions as desires ; and desire is their true and essential Essential nature. In order to understand the Literature. Philosophy of Poetry and literature we have to refer back to that view of Emotion wherein it is regarded as a pleasurable or painful state sui generis. The paragraphs on the pleasurable and painful nature of the Emotions at pp. 25—27, might here be read over again. 1 The Desire-Emotion specialised by the imme- diately surrounding circumstances of the particular situation is one thing, and the pleasure or pain specialised by its correspondence with such Desire- Emotion is another thing.' The latter, the speci- alised pleasure, is, it would appear, the true signifi- cance of the Samskrt word rasa, in Sahitya, * enjoyment, in company? the Science of Poetry, etc. And it is in this sense that what Bain1
i0« Ttaching English, p. 214.
160 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
tentatively says is true: "To Emotion we must come at last in any precise definition of poetry." The last word on the subject was said when it was
Definition declared that ***** W«WJ W*% of Poetry. ' Speech ensouled by r a s a is Poetry,' by Shauddhoclani, Vamana, Vishvanatha, and a host of others, all following the lead* of Bharata, the sage who first expounded the Science and Art of Poetry and Drama in India. This word remains final, notwithstanding attempts made here and there, notably by Mammata in his Kavya Prakasha, to invent other definitions. These attempts are failures by the general verdict, and even the authors of them find themselves com- pelled to resort to the ordinary view again and again.
The most important word of this definition is
clearly the word rasa. Many have Rasa., ., . . ...
been its interpretations and many its
translations. Its ordinary non-technical meaning gives the clue to its true special meaning in the Science of Poetry — as declared by Bharata himself. That meaning is ' juice, sap,' and also ' taste, relish.' When an Emotion-desire appears in the mind, and is not allowed to rush out in its usual course into action, but is checked, held in, and circumscribed by the cognitive consciousness, and the pleasurable picture of the fulfilment of the desire is deliberately dwelt upon and leisurely enjoyed in the mind, even as a delicious morsel of food may
EMOTION IN ART. 1G1
be detained and slowly and fully tabled in the mouth "then conies into existence this peculiar modification of consciousness which is called rasa. Rasa is the pleasurable consciousness, the feeling, of specialised pleasure, accompanying the presence in the imagination of the picture of the fulfilment of a desire. Compare the use of the word, in some of the works on the methods of Yoga, in the expression rasasvada, used to indicate one of the activities of the mind, viz., tasting the sweets of imagination, k building castles in the air, ' which is one of the obstacles in the way of gaining s a m a d h i— fixity in the higher consciousness. In r a s a there is an intimate inter-blending of the
cognitive and feeling elements of consci- An inter- ... ^. .... .
blending of ousnessi with the result that each gains
cognitive, in surface and expanse, but loses in
a^plei- compactness and depth. It is as if two
sure-tone heaps of two different kinds of grain
elements. W£re shaken into each other. The
whole new heap would acquire a new color different from that of either, and would be also larger in size than either. But the color would probably be vaguer, dimmer, less distinct and defined, than that of either. The resultant, in other words, gains something and loses something. The same result is noticeable in the case taken above from the gustatory consciousness.
Take another simile— a stream of water rushing onwards. If such a stream were led into a circular 11
162 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
basin whence there was no outlet, the stream would turn upon itself and revolve round and round and become a whirlpool, growing ever stronger in its circular rush, and ever deeper, if the inflow continued ; or stiller and more equable and steady of depth if it were cut off. In either case a certain depth would be gained greater than that of the flowing stream, and a certain spread of surface would be lost.
The characteristic of Poetry is such rasa. Its business is to call up an Emotion and then hold it in, so that its correspondent feeling of pleasure is 1 tasted ' at leisure.
The limiting, the circumscription, is provided by
the patent fact that the story, the
ment^f" description, the occasion, is only an
unreality imaginary and not a real and personal
therein. Qne for the reader> He is reading the
experiences in a book, and not passing through them in actual life. Later on, when the man is able to put himself in the position of the student and reader of life, and can regard his own and all other actual life as one great book merely, realising more and more the full significance of this endless drama and pastime of the world-process, including both the equal halves of all its tragedy and all its comedy, then he can treat this in exactly the same way as the reader of the book of ink and paper treats the story written therein ; and then the emotions aroused by and in such actual life will have no
EMOTION IN ART. 163
greater power over him than those aroused by a book of poetry. But it must always be remember- ed that, from the standpoint and for the practical purposes of the limited and individual human Jiva, the study and reading of life is not its own end. It is a means to the improvement of life as end. And, unless this aim is held constantly before the mind, great error will result. We meet with people here and there, and indeed more and more frequently in modern times, who have attained to that degree of self-consciousness that all their life has become deliberate ' acting ' ; but inasmuch as the self, to the consciousness of which they have attained, is not the ' united Self,' the Supreme Self, the Pratyagatma, their acting is aimless, purposeless, and in the end becomes very dreary and desolate, and remains such till they learn better.
Where the emotion aroused by the plain narrative is not sufficiently strong in
or figures8 itself> or the Pleasure corresponding to of speech, it is of such kind that the author or reader wants it lengthened and continu- ed, the device of ' ornaments of speech ' is resorted to. The sole business of an ornament, of all ornaments, is to put a circle, a limit, round a special feature, to put a marker on it ; to thus direct attention to it and intensify the consciousness thereof ; and thereby to define and intensify the special beauty of that feature — for enhancement
164 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
of beauty here is literally nothing else than enhancement of the consciousness of that beauty.
Such ' ornaments of speech, ' ' figures of speech,' in literature supply the place of the constant * inflow ' referred to above in the illustra- tion taken from flowing water, and they give the further supply that is necessary to make the 1 whirlpool ' deeper and stronger and more lasting. The absence of the supply causes the rasa to lose its force and subside into placidity shortly.
From the above considerations it appears that the main and direct object of Poetry is, of Poetry0 as Mammata says1 correctly in this instance, para-nirvrt i — great and peculiar pleasure. The other objects he enumerates, viz., instruction in the ways of the world, knowledge of old customs, counsel as to proper action in special situations, etc.— these are secondary and more in accordance with the views of the school of Purva-Mimdinsa as to the purpose of languagegenerally, than with the views of poets.
(b) THE NATURE OF PLEASURE AND PAIN WITH REFERENCE TO VARIOUS CLASSES OF JlVAS.
'I'ne object and nature of Poetry have been thus generally outlined. The nature of rasa, however, cannot be fully understood unless we enter into some little detail as to the nature of pleasure and pain from the standpoint of Meta-
i Kavya-Prakasha, I,, ii. (Karika).
EMOTION IN ART. 165
physic. We have tried to avoid doing so thus far, in order, if not altogether to preclude controversy —for it is not possible to obtain universal consent and unanimity on even a single proposition, how- ever plain, unmistakable, and simple it may appear — still to avoid dubitable and debatable points as much as possible. But longer to shirk this is to leave the subject in hand disjointed and the conclusions thereon unsupported.
The Self has been stated to be the first and most indispensable factor of life. It the feel- nas a^so been stated that, in the con- ing of the scions individual condition, the self is
of the self. alwaYs in a state either of Pleasure or of Pain. By careful examination it appears that Pleasure is the feeling of an expan- sion, an increase of the self.1 The very essence of Pleasure is an enhancement of the self, its growth, its intensification, its superiority over others or over its own past states, its moreness in short—
* This has been found to be true psycho-physically. Thus Titchener, An Outline of Psychology, (1902), ch. V., p. 112, says: " We find that pleasantness is attended (1) by increase of bodily volume, due to the expansion of arteries running just beneath the skin ; (2) by deepened breathing ; (3) by heightened pulse ; and (4) by increase of muscular power. Unpleasantness is accompanied by the reverse phenomena." But, it should be borne in mind, these are only general statements, which, as usual, have exceptions, ' which prove the rule/ and come under other rules.
166 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
moreness than before and as compared with others. These two comparisons, on analysis, come to mean the same thing, for the size, the measure, of a self, at any particular moment, must be a matter of com- parison with others ; so that, when we say ' supe- . riority over or moreness as compared with its own previous condition/ we still implicitly compare it with others at least in the time of the previous condition in order to fix the size of that previous condition.
So Pain is the feel ing of contraction, narrowing, Pain, of inferiority, lessness of the self than traction. before and than others.
This seems to be as near an approach to a universally correct definition of Pleasure and Pain as is available.
But if Pleasure and Pain are capable of such uniform characterisation, how is it that in the concrete, in actual life, what gives pleasure to one Jiva gives positive pain to another, and vice versb ? Do these facts contradict the definition or are they reconcileable with it ? They are, of course, recon- cileable with it ; indeed it is out of all these facts that the definition has been generalised. The explanation is this.
It has been said before that a Jiva is a com- pound of the Pratyagatma, the abstract Self, the One, and a portion of the concrete Not-Self, the Mulaprakrti, the Many. Not till such a combina- tion takes place is the multitudinous process of
EMOTION IN ART. 167
s a m s a r a possible. Self as such, the abstract Self, is incapable of being added to or subtracted from ; It has no quantity ; It is a bare, all-compre- hending and all-other-denying unity. The Not- Self as such, the pseudo-abstract or concrete Manyt is also incapable of being added to or subtracted from ; it is only the implicit total, the whole, of all (particulars) and has no manifest and explicit quality. In order that there may be any definition,, manifestation, v y a k t i , any definites, any parti, culars, individuals, v y a k t a s , the two A v y a k - t a s , the Unmanifest Infinite and In-de-finite,. Self and Not-Self, must be seen in Relation, in mutual transfusion and mutual superimpositionr a d h y a s a . This superimposition brings out attributes in each, and, at the same time, imposes, those of each upon the other, so that we have quantities, qualities, and movements, in the sub- jective, psychical or mental as well as the objective,, physical or bodily, half of the individual ]iva. a Now, when the Self has become identified with an
i We might round out here the line of thought a portion of which was sketched in the foot-note at p. 28, supra. Details as to the how and the why of all this, and of the Relation of Negation between the Self and the Not-Self will be found in The Science of Peace, as also indications of the endless triplets arising or existing within this primal Trinity (ch. xv.). One of the more prominent of these is the triplet of d r a v y a Y g u n a and k a r m a , or substance, quality and movement (ch. x). Substance, from one standpoint, appears as quantity.
168 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
u p a d h i , a portion of the Not-Self, when a Jiva proper, a conglomerate of self and not-self, the whole behaving and regarding itself as an indivi- dual, a particular self, a personality with a ' quan- tity,' has been formed, then contraction and expansion, pain and pleasure, become possible. And according as the nature of the particular, limited, individual, personal, self x is, so will be its causes of pleasure and pain. Whatever helps to expand that particular nature will be pleasurable, Morbid ^ie °PP°site painful. Herein lies the pleasures explanation of so-called morbid plea- and pains. sures and paing> When tfae self happens
to have become identified with what, from the
Now, by mutual superimposition of attributes, the self becomes an inner core-body or subtler sheath (ch. xiii.) and then shows out the 'properties ' of quantity, etc. In psychical or subjective terms, quantity appears as tone, temperament, 1 /arge-hearted, balanced, or «arn)M>-minded,' 'cheerful, equable or gloomy ', ' sanguine, phlegmatic or melancholy,' etc. ; quality appears as mentality, ' keen or dull,' etc. ; and mobility as character, 'pravrtta or n i v r t t a ' , selfish or unselfish,' ' worldly or unworldly,* ' pursuant or renunciant,' etc., with a medium third, or ' just,' between each pair. It must be remembered that this is only one of endless ways of looking at one of the endless aspects of the primal Trinity.
i In the earlier days of theosophical literature, a distinction was drawn between 'individuality' and ' perso- nality.' Later developments show that what was meant was only the distinction between the relatively more perma- nent subtler bodies and the more transient grosser bodies.
EMOTION IN ART. 169
standpoint of the majority, is called a diseased condition of the not-self, then appears the mysterious-looking phenomenon of pleasure- positive pleasure for the time being, however false and illusory otherwise — being caused by what actually promotes and perpetuates the disease and the feeling of the disease.1
In view of the above remarks, for the purposes of the subject in hand, Jivas may be divided into two broad classes.2 According to the general Law of Evolution in the world-process, during the first half of a cycle, whether large or small, the tendency is for the self to identify itself more and more completely with the not-self, to fall more and more deeply into matter, as it is sometimes described, to become more and more separate, ex- clusive, and individualistic, by means of immersion in more and more concrete and mutually-resistant forms. The reverse is the case during the second
1 For examples see W. James, Principles of Psychology, II, pp. 553-55-1. His explanations are differentof course, however, from the one suggested above. To us, the worms that thrive in mire and the gods that are nourished on nectar and ambrosia are such only because the self is identified with what is called by human beings mire in the one case and nectar and ambrosia in the other, respectively. In the cases mentioned by James, the identification is very temporary. The key-note of the Samskrt system of medical treatment is •s a t m y a, ' con -natural-less or identity with the self,' * agreeing.'
2 See the Bhagavad-Gita. xvi.
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half, when the self dissociates itself more and more from the not-self, and tends more and more to revert towards its abstract unity. During the former period, accordingly, the period of the pravrtti-marga, the path of pursuit of things worldly, of engagement in the world, the causes of pleasure and pain are respectively those that expand or contract the material, the more concrete, the separated self, the lower self, or rather the not-self that has assumed the mask of the self. During the latter period, the causes are those that enhance or narrow the spiritual, the more abstract, the uniting self, the higher self, the self that has assumed the mask of the not-self.
It should be remembered here that this is all a
matter of grades and degrees, of rela- of al^ ^ tivity, of more and more, and less and; state- less only ; there is no complete, absolute,
loss of the instinctive feeling of unity (which is the result of the presence of the Self) on the first half of the cycle; as there is no complete, absolute, loss of the instinctive feeling of separate- ness (due to the presence of the Not-Self) on the second half to its very end in p r a 1 a y a and Peace. The complete absence from manifestation of the one means the similar complete absence of the other, and the consequent collapse of the world- process into p r a 1 a y a for the time being ; and thus it is that, during manifestation, Love and Hate are to be always found touching each Other, from the very
EMOTION IN ART. 171
beginning unto the very end, though, of course, their power and prevalence vary in the two stages, even as the height of the two ends of a see-saw might vary.
The result of all this is that during the first half of every cycle, large or small, represent- between in§ tne u'fe of one human being or of a selfishness nation, a race, or all humanity, a globe unselfish- or a Cosmos, the separative emotions on ness, and the side of Hate and vice prevail. The
justiceeorf §reed for £ain> for self-assertion, for constant individualism, for adding to one's own u p a d h i at the expense of others, the a s u r i-p r a k r t i in short, is strong then, and Jivas predominantly belong to the class which is best described by the word ' selfish.' Later on, during the other half, when the power of the not- self decreases, and the Self is recognised as distinct from the Not-Self and as One in and with all selves,, all Jivas, then the emotions that make for union, those on the side of Love and virtue and the d a i vi- p r a k r t i , gather strength, and Jivas belong to the class l unselfish.' The pleasure-seeking youth be- comes the self- sacrificing parent ; a conquering nation or race becomes the civiliser and uplifter of subject-races rather than their exterminator ; an orb or kosmic system gives away its own life and con stituent material to a younger orb or system instead of swallowing up its compeers and brothers as Martanda, the Sun, did in his younger days.
172 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
This law, it should be noted, is true only as a general law, in the case of the typical cyclical life. In the actual practice of the world-process there is such an infinite commingling of larger and smaller cycles, each being at a different stage, and the cases of special protection and guidance of and consequent absence of evil amongst early races, and of violent distortion from the ordinary path, of disease and premature death, amongst individuals as well as nations during certain other periods of the life of humanity, are so common in consequence of other minor laws, that it may well appear to the casual observer that there is no such general law governing the world-process. The Samskrt saying is useful to bear in mind in this connection :
" He that is the dullest of the dull, or he that has attained to That which is beyond the b u d d h i — these two only are the happy in the world ; the midway Jivas are the unhappy." All these three stages are present everywhere and always, but, of course, also, only one is predominant and the others in abeyance at any one time and place, in the life of any one individual, race, system, etc.
Selfish Jivas, as just said, find pleasure in what- ever increases their material self, their physical possessions and belongings ; hence with them 1 taking ' is the watchword of action. With
EMOTION IN ART. 173
unselfish Jivas, on the other hand, * giving ' is the guiding principle. Because, in the one case, the Jiva feels that the more he solidifies his material u p a d h i the more he strengthens, perpetuates, and expands his self ; while, in the other, he feels that the more he gives away of his u p a d h i , the more he attenuates and thins it, the more the possibility of his self uniting with other selves, the more its expan- sion and increase and assimilation to the One Self.
In consequence of subtle modifications, however, which take place inevitably, a l taking ' comes sometimes to be a taking in Love ; it is accompani- ed with the desire to repay by grateful service, and hence has still the element of l giving ' in it, and therefore belongs to the side of unselfishness and unity (vide analysis of l Devotion ' supra). On the other hand, very often is ' giving ' a giving in unwillingness ; it is then a l loss ' and is accom- panied by the wish to take back at the earliest opportunity. Such giving belongs to the side of selfishness and separation.
Bearing in mind the possibility of endless such
modifications — all of which will be
classes of found capable of reduction by the
emotions general principles stated above— we
nlnll™1" maY see that to one class of IIvas the divided circumstances arousing the one class of
thHwo1 emotions will be exclusively pleasurable classes of and the opposite painful, whereas JlYas. amongst the other exactly the reverse
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will be the case. That it is so happens by the invincible necessity of conditions. In every scene of actual life, wherever there is occasion for the exercise of an emotion of the one class, there is present also, either as cause or as effect of the first- mentioned occasion, an occasion for an emotion of the opposite class. This will be treated of later, in dealing with illustrations of the charac- ter of literature.
It should be noted, meanwhile, that the desire of the Jiva is always towards ' moreness ' and away from * lessness.' It loves that which makes it more ; it hates that which makes it less. But the it which is to be made more or less is very different in different cases. Desire itself, as such, may well be said to be neither pleasurable nor painful. That which is desired to be gained, and the condition of the self when it has been gained, are both called pleasurable. That which is desired to be avoided, and the condition of the self when it is not avoided are called painful.
(c) THE ESSENTIAL OBJECT AND CHARACTER
OF LITERATURE.
Every desire is always accompanied by two more or less clear pictures in the imagi-
Dual nation, one pleasant, of its fulfilment,
mental
pictures and the other painful, of its defeat. The provision of pleasurable pictures, representations of the settings of pleasur- able emotion-feelings or r a s a s , is the
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main business of one class of Poetry and Literature ; but, of course, what may be r a s a to one person may be k u - r a s a (evil rasa) to another differently constituted ; and this is unavoidable. The form of the poetry is allowed scant impor- tance in the Indian science, though, in the West, metre, and to a less extent rhyme, have been held to be essential. Bain, and J. S. Mill before him, apparently approximate to the Indian view, which allows of such famous prose-poems as Kadambart, Vdsava- datta etc., and, of course, includes the drama under poetry at large, as one of its species. Walt Whit- man and his imitators also recognise in practice the accuracy of this view. It may be, however, that this view is correct only in principle and as a theory. In practice, the powerful additions made to the pleasures of poetry by metre and rhyme have considerably checked the growth of prose- poems and have thrown into the shade all but the very best. For similar reasons, just as the metrical poem is an advance upon the prose-poem, so recited poetry and the drama constitute an advance upon the metrical poem. To the musical effects of metre and rhyme, which enlist the services of the ear in furthering the pleasures of poetry, the drama adds the scenic effects which engage the eye also. The mental picture of the desired denouement (referred to before) is, in the drama, made the vividest that is possible without
176 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
actually passing into the real. And hence the dictum ^[5qq ^fZ^i ^H — " Amongst poems, the drama is the highest. " For similar reasons, too, it is that dance and song of man and woman in company represent the culmination point of esthetic enjoyment, of pleasure, of l moreness,' that is known to present humanity.
4 Style' is obviously only a ' ruling passion ' guiding the verbal expression. The very adjec- tives, ' dignified,' ' powerful,' { pompous,' emotional/ l sarcastic, ' ' chaste, ' etc., show this. To cultivate a style successfully is to cultivate the appropriate * mood ' so effectively that it becomes part of one's character and therefore automatically governs and shapes the utterance. Form being thus discounted, it remains true that the primary business of literature
Thsential as a whole» of a11 Poetryi nctio»> drama, signifi- and in a certain sense of biography, cance of history, and narratives of travels also, is tureT representation of Emotion-feelings (as
distinguished from Emotion-desires) in their infinite combinations and permutations, as actually or potentially present in multifarious human life. A nation's literature is in truth that nation's instinctive effort to provide for each of its members vicarious experience of the Emotion- feelings of all its members in all its manifold variety of life— even as a world-system is nothing more nor less than a vast endeavor to provide for
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its constituent Jivas direct experience of all possi- ble pleasures and pains (corresponding world* ^ to and being the actuals of Emotion, process, in feelings), of all kinds of pleasures and Emotion Pains possible within the spatial and durational limits of that particular world- system.
This also helps to explain how those writers come to be regarded as the greatest, and those works become the most permanent and the most prominent, that have seized and embodied the most permanent and prominent Emotion-feelings of humanity in the most remarkable manner.
So true is this that if the mental constitution of a race, a nation, be changed, all its literary idols and ideals would be replaced also. This truth is in fact embodied in all the trite expressions about change of fashion, change of taste, etc. Such expressions indeed appear trite only because applied to small and common matters. They are none the less true, and, in their full significance, important. What is true of the small is also true of the great. The histories of nations, the histories of races, the vast story of humanity as a whole — all are illustrations of changes of taste and changes of fashion. The inner life of the Self seeks ever new forms and ways of expression, expression of Emotion-desire and realisation of Emotion-feeling ; and it is possible and instructive to read the stories of the different nations as the stories of the workings of single 12
178 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
ruling Passions and Emotions.1 But the basic Emotions — Love and Hate, Benevolence and Pride of heart, Humility and Fear — these persist through- out, however great the changes of taste as to the subtler combinations of them. They are under- stood always, at all times, in all places, and the great epics of the nations shall be always read and always honored because they comprehensively grasp and powerfully depict these basic Emotions. The subtler shades and combinations of them, on the other hand, elude the grasp of the general public, excite a temporary and evanescent interest, and remain confined to the few that by courtesy are called ' the poets of poets ' of each time.2
1 Thus : Indian story embodies Dharma, Greek, Beauty ; Roman, Law ; Persian, Dignity, and so on. See Annie Besant's Dharma.
2 As frequently noted elsewhere, at the present stage of humanity, the emotions cluster largely round the sexual emotion, or passion, as it is called when more intense and more physical. The latter appears largely in the class of literature to which the Katha-sarit-sagara, many Greek and Latin ' classics, ' The Arabian Nights, Boccaccio's Decame- ron, Margaret's Heptameron, Gil Bias, many of Shakespeare's plays and poems (e.g. The Merry Wives of Windsor), and suchlike 'tales and stories ' belong. In them all, the course and current of the human life is wound around the more or less obviously ' physical ' aspect of love. Side by side with such works go the others, in which the physical side is more in the background, and the subtler and the more * refined ' and imaginative side is more prominently depicted. The two classes of works have thus gone togeth er for thousands of years now, because both the sub-classes of JIvas, the 'younger*
EMOTION IN ART. 179
(d) ILLUSTRATIONS.
The rasas most common in the extant litera- tures of the world are, according to the Indian Science of Poetry, eight in number : (1) The Beautiful and Erotic ; (2) [the Comic ; (3) the Pathetic ; (4) the Heroic ; (5) the Furious and Cruel ; (6) the Fearful ; (7) the Disgusting ; and (8) the Sublime and Wonderful. A
principal ninth rasa' s h s n t a, the feeling of 4 inter- Peace and Renunciation of the world,
tio'ns' ofC~ is sometimes added to the list J but ifc Poetry. is a rasa in a negative sense only, by
opposition as it were to the rasas proper, whose gradual abolition constitutes the interest of the s h a n t a. The rasa itself in actual life is to be found in all countries and times ; wherever man has lived he has known frustration of desire, and the finer natures, i.e., the older or more advanced Jivas of every race, have drawn v a i r a g y a and s h a n t i and renunciation of the world from such frustration ; but the poetical
with the physical aspect predominant, and the somewhat older with developing ' mental ' bodies, have been evolving side by side. The ' passionate ' story suits the ' younger ' Jiva, and the great cravings and blind devotions, the cunning, the devices and the frequent physical adventures, which go with it, agree with his dawning intellect ; whereas the ' emotional' story appeals more to the other kind of Jiva with a more ' inner,' a less demonstrative, flow of feeling. Of course, these remarks apply to only two of the more typical classes, out of endless shades and mixtures.
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representation and embodiment of this Emotion has been largely confined to India it appears. The perusal of the above list at once gives rise to
the question why poetry and literature An objec- „ , ... ,. ^ .
tion. allow a place to r a s a s like the Furious,
the Fearful, the Disgusting, and even the Pathetic.1 Why is it true, in the words of the ancient Indian poet, ^q 5R^o7l W. "The highest
of the rasas is Pathos" ; and in those of the modern English singer,
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. 2
Why should there be such amazing outbreaks of
the Horrible, the Disgusting, and the Cruel, in the
literatures of the nations ? Men desire only the
pleasurable Emotion-feelings. And are not these
painful ones ? and if so, why are they cultivated ?
The answer is to be found in all that has gone
before, mainly in what has been said Thfi answer. regarding morbid pleasures and pains*
in the fact that these outbreaks in literature correspond with outbreaks in actual life. The so-called ' painful Emotion-feelings ' are (1) either not painful at all, but positively pleasur- able, to the class of Jivas that seek them for their own sake ; or (2) the scenes corresponding to them are necessary backgrounds for the play of the opposite emotions.
1 See p. 145, supra.
2 Shelley, The Skylark.
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It has been said just now that with every Emo- tion-desire goes an Emotion-feeling, and that every Emotion-feeling is accompanied by two pictures in the imagination, one of the fulfilment of the desire and the other of its defeat. The former is pleasur- able, and the latter only painful. And if this is so, it is easy to see how every Emotion- feeling that does not precede actual realisation in life may remain pleasurable-
Emotion-desires may loosely, and not accu- rately, be called pleasurable or painful in this sense, that the one set takes its rise in pleasure and the other in pain. In actual life the Emotion- feelings corresponding to the latter Emotion-desires are also painful. The painful picture is the most prominent in them ; it is no longer imaginary ; it is expected ; the imagination has passed there into the more dense form of inference and expectation.
The Fearful. — An unarmed and defenceless man
in the presence of a tiger feels the
f^l Emotion-desire of Fear— the desire to
run away, to escape, to put distance and
separation between himself and the animal. The
Emotion-feeling here is purely painful, because
the picture of the fulfilment of the desire is very
weak indeed, while the other picture, matter of
expectation, as just said, and not of imagination, is
overpoweringly strong.
But let the incident occur not in real life but in a tale that we are reading. Now two kinds of
182 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
1 selves' generally appreciate a story of danger and adventure : the actively timid spirit on the one hand, and the actively proud and strong spirit on the other. It looks like a contradiction in terms to say so} but he who has followed and seen reason to agree in the classification which ranges Pride and Fear in the same line, will easily see the truth of this also. The timid spirit contemplates the danger, the cause of Fear, and finds congenial occupation, interest, excitement, and expansion in devising plans to run away from the danger and avoid it. The pleasurable Emotion-feeling to it consists in the picture of successfully running away from the danger. This is the explanation of the fondness of children for blood-curdling stories, stories of ghosts and goblins and monsters and wild beasts, which make them shiver in ecstasies of fright. But in all these cases the enjoyment of the story and the eagerness for more of it would vanish at once if and as soon as it was realised by, really brought home to, the reader or listener, that there was actual danger present and no possibility of escape. In the other case, the proud and strong spirit also contemplates the danger, the cause of Fear, and finds congenial occupation, interest, excitement, and expansion, in devising plans to avoid the danger ; but his plans are to avoid the danger not by running away from it but by sup- pressing it. The pleasurable Emotion-feeling to him consists in the picture of successfully coping
EMOTION IN ART.
with and overpowering the danger in his own person in a similar situation.
Such seems to be the explanation of the existence of the literature of the Fearful.
The Cruel and the Disgusting. — "The explanation
of the literature of the Cruel and the
and the Disgusting is similar. Those that are
Disgust- in sympathy with the corresponding
Emotions enjoy such literature, and
gloat over the destruction of the defeated victim
or enemy in full sympathy with the author of the
cruel act, the murderer it may be, or the successful
schemer and intriguer, or the adulterer, etc. *
The Pathetic.— The opposite emotions also arise from the background of the above. Pathetic. Thus 'Pathos,' 'the Pathetic,' is the counterpart of ' the Terrible,' ' the Cruel,' 'the Disgusting,' etc. The 'sufferer' natu- rally goes along with the author of suffering. In a scene thus involving the presence of both, are therefore present materials for the sympathy of both natures, the virtuous and the vicious. The former, sympathising with the sufferer, experience the rasa of karuna, Pathos, Pity. Their Benevolence is strongly aroused, and the picture
1 Max Nordau's book, on Degeneration, gives some apt instances of the outbreak of such evil emotions in life and in so-called realistic literature, even in times of peace. That they are very common in times of war is, of course, known to everybody. See also James, Principles of Psychology^ II, p. 413.
184. SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
of the fulfilment of their desire to help is the source of their enjoyment of a tragedy.
Let us see what happens in such a case. In an •emotion of Benevolence, by pseudo-identification of the one, the superior, Jiva with the other, the inferior, Jiva, the former feels the pain of the latter. The desire arises in him to avoid that which is causing the pnin, which is making the latter inferior, small, less. He forthwith tries to re- move that which is causing the inferiority. The Self — wherein lies unity— being predominant in this relation, and the unity of the two being felt, there results inevitably the feeling of moreness and -of pleasure, so far, to the superior ; and the pain which is caused by the giving of a portion of the 11 p a d h i (not-self) to the other, to relieve his inferiority — though painful no doubt— is lost in the predominant pleasure. And, therefore, is ' the quality of mercy doubly blessed.' The superior feels the joy of identification of the two selves ; and the inferior also partly that, and largely that of the gain to his u p a d h i and relief of positive pain. But let there be no doubt that to the material body, the not-self portion of the superior, the act of giving is a painful one. The mere fact •of an unnoticed degree in small cases should not be allowed to hide the underlying truth which is recognised confessedly in all the associations of the word ' sacrifice.1 That an act of self-sacrifice is pleasurable is true only so far as the Self-portion
EMOTION IN ART. 185
of the Jiva is concerned ; not as regards the Not- Self-portion. And in this last fact lurks the danger of much exercise of the emotion of the Pathetic out of actual life, which danger will be shortly referred to.
To return : while the action of adjusting the inequality is in progress, in fact as soon as the desire to associate with the inferior and lift him up arises in the mind of the superior, there also arises in his mind the picture of the end he seeks to secure and of what he seeks to avoid. The former, being a picture of the completed * association,' and therefore of gained * moreness ' is pleasur- able. The other is painful The former picture is sought to be realised in outer life, in action, in reality. The other is similarly avoided ; so much so that even benevolent people turn away from suffering they cannot help; it gives them pain only, without any possibility of the pleasure of relieving it, and they cannot bear to see misery that is hopeless. This in actual life. But in imagination, in literature, whatever the end of the story, whether a completed tragedy or not, the imagination always contemplates the possibility of relieving the distress and so can find enjoyment.
When such an Emotion is called up in poetry, by delineating the appropriate occasion and circum - stances, the reading Jiva naturally, if he be so constituted as to be in sympathy with the subj ect (that is to say, if Benevolence be an Emotion
186 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
congenial to his self), pictures predominantly the pleasurable denouement which he himself would create if he had the opportunity, and revolves it constantly in mind, exercising his benevo- lent propensities in all ways possible under the circumstances ; and so he derives pleasure from the poetry. His * benevolent self ' is, so to sayr. intensified, made more, in the pictured denouement. But if he were not in sympathy with the subject, the poetry could have no charm, no interest for him ; and if his Jiva belonged distinctly to the opposite class, then any expressions in the work calculated to evoke Benevolence or appearing to demand Pity would be positively painful to him, and he would only side with and enjoy the description of the deeds of the author of the suffering, in the work- Therefore a great danger underlies the enjoy- ment of such scenes of pathos by even the benevo- lent and the full of pity.
There have been human beings who, originally virtuously inclined and taking pleasure *n ^eec*s °^ cnarity and help and service gence in to others, have begun to take pleasure imaginary jn mere tales or dramatic represen- lence. tations of such, and so have gradually
sunk into being contented with purely imaginary exercise of their Benevolence. And they have fallen further, if their worldly position has given them the requisite power, into that awful condition of the apparently unintelligible human-
EMOTION IN ART. 187
monster who, not content with imaginary scenes for his imaginary Pity, devises actual real scenes of cruelty and torture to human and other beings in order to excite and expand his ' pitying self.* Lest this seem too far-fetched, consider the case of singing-birds separated from their mates and confined in different cages in order to make them sing more passionately and sweetly. The very commonness of the practice hides the subtle and refined cruelty underlying it, which is sometimes not even redeemed, as it partially, and only partial- ly, is and can be, by the ' petting ' of the animals ; and it is no more noticed than the true significance referred to before of the fattening of animals for the slaughter- yard. Who knows but that the refined and cultured men that sat on the throne of decadent Rome, Caligula and Nero and their kin — who have been prominent in all nations in the days of their disruption, even as foul worms in a putrefy- ing corpse ; who were common in the mediaeval: ages of Europe as well as of Asia — who knows but that they have been really such ' aberrations of nature/ and not only wild savages, with merely the instincts of Hate predominant in them. These phenomenal Jivas seem to appear largely only at those stages in human history when a turning-point is reached, when the Self and the Not-Self ele- ments of the Jiva are both almost equally strong, when the struggle between them is the severest, when Pity is necessary to indulge in, and yet the:
188 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
pain of the sacrifice of the Not-Self, alluded to before, is so great as to prevent a real and true indulgence of it.
Of course, it may be that in any one or all of the particular instances referred to above, the Jivas were only purely vicious natures, in whom the element of Not-Self, and consequently the forces of separation, were overpoweringly predominant, and who therefore took a pleasure in the cruel sights of the arena only to gratify their Emotion- desires of Hatred and Pride. But the other view is not altogether useless. It supplies a possible explanation in certain cases which are otherwise inexplicable.
And in that explanation, perhaps, may be found a reason why the science of the Indian partitive drama tacitly discourages tragedy-writ- absence of ing ; why tragedies, songs ' Of old, from unhappy, far-off things, and battles long
Samskrt ago/ ' Sweetest songs that tell of sad- imagina- dest thoughtj> « Songs Q£ the separation
literature, of lovers/ belong not to the strongest and most vigorous stage in the story of a nation, but perhaps to the period of its weakness. The Indian view is so strong on this point that the author of the Uttara- Rama- charita-- -than which it is not easy to conceive a finer study of Pathos in any language or literature — has given a happy ending to his work, directly contradicting even the traditional history of the sage Valmild.
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It is desirable in many ways that the valuable emotion of Pity should not be wasted on air. The literature and the scenic representation of the Pathetic should be only sparingly allowed, and used principally for the cultivation and development of the finer feelings, when such is deemed expedient and possible, in view of the ever-present danger of arousing sympathy in a vicious nature with the evil characters of the drama. In the words of Rama to his lifelong servant and ceaseless devotee Hanuman : " I do not wish at all to pay thee back the kindness thou hast done to me ; to wish this were to wish that thou shouldst be in pain and need my help ; and such wish is the wish of the false friend and not the true." To be always seeking in imagination, i.e., in imagined scenes of suffering, which is very different from prayer for the well-being of the world — for the gratification of one's benevolent propensities, is to be always desiring that others should be in misfortune. For similar reasons too, public instinct has always, in all times and places, looked more or less askance at the profession of ' acting ' ; for though, in a sense, the very quintessence of all the arts combined, the very perfection of them all together, yet it is also inseparable from ' putting on/ ' pretence/ 'masque- rading/ ' make-believe ' and ' insincerity.' So closely do good and evil elbow each other in
190 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
human life and so difficult is it to distinguish between them always.1
It is clear that (1) The Beautiful and Erotic, (3) the Pathetic, and (8) the Sublime and Wonderful belong to the side of Love and Attraction, while (5) the Furious and Cruel, (6) the Fearful, and (7) the Disgusting, belong to the side of Hate and Repulsion. The interest of (2) the Comic, and (4) the Heroic is mixed. The Comic consists of Ridicule and Good-humor ; while the Heroic is similarly made up of Pride and Self-Sacrifice.
(e) THE OTHER ARTS.
What is true of poetry and literature, in that they
are representations of the Emotions, is
sensuous also true of painting, sculpture, music,
Element architecture, and the other Fine Arts of
nant in the past and the future, with this
Other difference ; that in all these, in some
more than in others, but still in all, the
purely sensuous element, as distinguished from the
emotional, is greater than in poetry and literature.
From what has been said above as to the nature of Emotion and as to the factors involved in it (ch. iv., vi., and x.) it will have appeared that Emotion, as distinguished from merely physical and sensuous craving, appears only between Jiva and Jiva. There is no Emotion between feeder and food,
i These remarks might be regarded as illustrating one possible interpretation of Bhagavad Gita, iv. 16, 17, 18.
EMOTION IN ART. 191
seer and color as such, hearer and sound, smeller and scent — though each of these objects may be intensely pleasing or painful. It is only when 4 subjects ' become ' objects ' to each other that complicated relations arise, intellect is born, and multifarious forms of action in social and national life, trades, commerce, governmental institutionsi come into being— all three, Cognition, Desire and Action increasing in complexity into Thought, Emotion and Occupation, side by side, and language too growing correspondingly.
Poetry and literature are therefore, as is generally and naturally recognised, the means of the com- pletest and closest exposition of human life. * The
i It may be observed here that ' art for art's sake, ' and 4 science for science's sake,' have been looked upon in India, especially in the older, ' pre-classical,' times, before the Scythian and Greek invasions, before Vikrama and Kalidasa, with deprecation and distrust, as more or less mischievous and dangerous. ' Art and Science for the sake of life,' for promoting the recognised ends of life (about which more later) have been always approved and encouraged. All ' thinking ' artists and scientists are agreed herein. And hence the indefeasible and still lingering tendency in Sams- krt works, always ' to point a moral.' The view will be appreciated if we compare running, living streams, in the most rugged natural setting, with stagnant waters confined in the most highly and artificially ornamented reservoirs. The remarks made above in connection with l the danger of over-indulgence in imaginary benevolence,' and 'the comparative absence of tragedy from Samskrt literature' may also help to explain the reasons for this feeling. In
192 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
other forms of art sometimes do not aim at repre- senting or arousing Emotion in this sense at all— a landscape, a sea-scene, a wordless melody may appeal to the purely sensuous consciousness, and may be * beautiful ' only as pleasing exclusively the eye or the ear. But this happens seldom ; a 1 human interest ' is generally given to his work by the author ; he introduces elements which arouse emotions of 'Love, or sympathetic Fear, or Pathos, or Heroism. Even architecture is either ' devo- tional,' or ' grand and sublime,' or ' stern and forbidding,' or * strong and massive,' or ' dull and lifeless/ and so forth. At the present stage of humanity, combinations of Sense and Emotion are the most attractive and the most appreciated. That music is the most honored which is not only pleasant to the ear but also expresses an Emotion powerfully, either by suggestion and association, or
history, too, as a matter of fact, the peculiar stage of mind, the peculiar form of self-consciousness, which goes with the demand of ' art for art's sake ' and ' science for science's sake,1 instead of ' both for the sake of human life,' has generally marked the setting in of deterioration, the begin- ning of degeneration, the ' culmination ' and ending of progress, the completion of the half-cycle of material progress and pursuit. Such culmination would be healthy if the next step of the self consciousness were deliberate renunciation and self-sacrifice, the striving after m o k s h a ; otherwise it is unhealthy. Ordinarily, health consists in always looking ahead, and not stopping short, wherein begin stagnation and decay.
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directly, by appropriate words, and so far is poetry. That sculpture, that painting, receives the most praise, which is not only faultless as a masterpiece of form or color, but also embodies a powerful Bmotion with which the beholder's temperament is in consonance.
It has been observed that in the power of works of Art to arouse pleasurable Emotion in a large number of persons, lies the possibility of its sub- serving the high object of ' social consolidation ?1 ; this is nothing else, it should be noted, than increase of sympathy by increased realisation of the Common Self in consequence of pleasures commonly shared.
1 H. R. Marshall's Aesthetic Principles, pp. 82-84. 13