In character, then, we find the real focus[356] of the ideal exposition of art, that is to say in so far as the embodiment unites in itself the separate aspects of it already developed as consistent phases, in the construction of its own totality. For the Idea as _Ideal_, by which we mean as clothed in a form within the grasp of sensuous imagination and perception, and in its activity as action and accomplishment, is, if we define it strictly, just this self-relation of the _subjective individuality._ The individuality, however, which is truly _free_, and nothing short of this will satisfy the Ideal, has not merely to declare itself as universality, but at the same time, to assert its nature as concrete singularity, as the mediating bond which unites and transpierces both sides thus related, which in their _self-related_ actuality subsist as unity. And this is precisely what we understand by character, the ideal form of which consists in the wealth of energy with which all the constituent aspects of the subjective life are welded in one whole. We will now inquire rather more closely into the nature of this conception of character viewed under three distinct aspects. _First_, as co-extensive[357] individuality, that is to say, with, our attention directed to the wealth of substance contained in it. _Secondly_, with direct reference to its particularity, the form in which it is bound to appear, albeit still a totality, as one that is more _defined_ or specific. _Thirdly_, in our final apprehension of it as a unity which is fully identified with its own determinate form, that is, which is throughout fused with the same by virtue of its own principle of subjective self-identity, and thereby attaches to the whole the significance of an essentially _assured_ character. We will now develop and elucidate more fully what we conceive to be implied in the above general propositions.