Project Gutenberg 2004-06-01 Public domain in the USA. 268 Bragdon, Claude Fayette 1866 1946 Bragden, Claude The Beautiful Necessity Seven Essays on Theosophy and Architecture The art of architecture -- Unity and polarity -- Changeless change -- The bodily temple -- Latent geometry -- The arithmetic of beauty -- Frozen music -- Conclusion. E-text prepared by Leah Moser and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team "The Beautiful Necessity" by Claude Fayette Bragdon is a philosophical treatise that combines concepts from theosophy with architectural theory, written during the early 20th century. The work discusses how art, particularly architecture, serves as an expression of cosmic order and life, embodying relationships between different forms of artistic expression. It explores themes such as beauty, unity, and the principles of design, illustrating how these concepts manifest in architectural structures through the lens of theosophy. The opening of the book introduces the foundational ideas that Bragdon will explore throughout his essays. He emphasizes the importance of theosophy as a means to understand art, likening architectural practice to a spectrum where different art forms interact and yield deeper insights into existence. The narrative begins with a reflection on the relationship between architecture and the senses, asserting that architecture embodies both functional necessity and artistic beauty, echoing the characteristics of music as a temporal art. Bragdon argues that architecture, while grounded in space, offers a timeless expression of beauty that connects all artistic endeavors through their shared essence, setting the stage for a more detailed examination of different architectural styles and principles in the ensuing chapters. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 37.1 (College-level). Difficult to read. en Theosophy Architecture NA Text Architecture Racism Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches Category: Architecture Category: Art Category: Philosophy & Ethics 172779 2025-08-05T16:23:35.350509 text/html 172764 172614 2024-11-06T04:09:53.751451 2023-10-06T06:13:35.283296 text/html text/html 137301 2025-08-05T16:23:40.909482 application/epub+zip 137959 2025-08-05T16:23:37.995533 application/epub+zip 127451 2025-08-05T16:23:36.922514 application/epub+zip 250441 2025-08-05T16:23:43.146469 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 235104 2025-08-05T16:23:40.261510 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 219549 2022-09-06T21:50:17.249961 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 157580 2025-08-05T16:23:35.089544 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 137768 2024-10-28T19:41:28 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18359 2025-08-05T16:23:43.284483 application/rdf+xml 11223 2025-08-05T16:23:37.416513 image/jpeg 2961 2025-08-05T16:23:37.166515 image/jpeg 135641 2025-08-05T16:23:35.364513 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia