Section 5

RHYTHMIC CHANGE
There is in nature a universal tendency toward refinement and compactness of form in space, or contrariwise, toward increment and diffusion; and this manifests itself in time as acceleration or retardation. It is governed, in either case, by an exact mathematical law, like the law of falling bodies. It shows itself in the widening circles which appear when one drops a stone into still water, in the convolutions of shells, in the branching of trees and the veining of leaves; the diminution in the size of the pipes of an organ illustrates it, and the spacing of the frets of a guitar. More and more science is coming to
CHANGLESS CHANGE 55
recognize, what theosophy affirms, that the spiral vortex, which so beautifully illustrates this law, both in its time and its space aspects is the universal archetype, the pattern of all that is, has been, or will be, since it is the form assumed by the ultimate physical atom, and the ultimate physical atom is the physical cosmos in miniature.
This Rhythmic Diminution is everywhere: it is in the eye itself, for any series of mathematically equal units, such for example as the columns and intercolumnations of a colonnade, become when seen in perspective rhythmically unequal, dimin- ishing according to the universal law. The entasis of a Classic column is determined by this law, the spirals of the Ionic volute, the annulets of the Parthenon cap, obey it (Illustration 30).
In recognition of the same principle of Rhythmic Diminu- tion a building is often made to grow^ or appear to grow lighter, more intricate, finer, from the ground upward, an end attained by various devices, one of the most common being the employ- ment of the more attenuated and highly ornamented orders above the simpler and sturdier, as in the Roman Colosseum, or in the Palazzo Uguccioni, in Florence — to mention only two examples out of a great number. In the Riccardi Palace an effect of increasing refinement is obtained by diminishing the boldness of the rustication of the ashlar in successive stories; in the Farnese, by the gradual reduction of the size of the angle quoins (Illustration 30). In an Egyptian pylon it is achieved most simply by battering the wall; in a Gothic cathedral most elaborately by a kind of segregation, or breaking up, analogous to that which a tree undergoes — the strong, relatively unbroken base corresponding to the trunk, the diminishing buttresses to the tapering limbs, and the multitude of delicate pinnacles and crockets, to the outermost branches and twigs, seen against the sky.
56 THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
RADIATION
The final principle of natural beauty to which the author would call attention is the law of Radiation, which is in a man- ner a return to the first, the law of Unity. The various parts of any organism radiate from, or otherwise refer back to common centers, or foci, and these to centers of their own. The law is represented in its simplicity in the star-fish, in its complexity in the body of man; a tree springs from a seed, the solar system centers in the sun.
The idea here expressed by the term "radiation" is a famil- iar one to all students of theosophy. The Logos radiates his life and light throughout his universe, bringing into activity a host of entities which become themselves radial centers; these generate still others, and so on endlessly. This principle, like every other, patiently publishes itself to us, unheeding, every- where in nature, and in all great art as well ; it is a law of optics, for example, that all straight lines having a common direction if sufficiently prolonged appear to meet in a point, i. e., radiate from it (Illustration 31). Leonardo da Vinci employed this principle of perspective in his Last Supper to draw the specta- tor's eye to the picture's central figure, the point of sight toward which the lines of the walls and ceiling converge centering in the head of Christ. Puvis de Chavannes, in his Boston Library decoration, leads the eye by a system of triangulation to the small figure of the Genius of Enlightment above the central door (Illustration 32) ; and Ruskin, in his Elements of Drawing, has shown how artfully Turner arranged some of his compositions to attract attention to a focal point.
This law of Radiation enters largely into architecture. The Colosseum, based upon the ellipse, a figure generated from two points or foci, and the Pantheon, based upon the circle, a figure
CHANGLESS CHANGE
57
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TtnRiD STORY
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generated from a central point, are familiar examples. The distinctive characteristic of Gothic construction, the concen- tration or focalization of the weight of the vaults and arches at
58
THE BE
AUTIFUL NECESSITY
certain points, is another illustration of the same principle applied to archi- tecture, beautifully exemplified in the semicircular apse of a cathedral, where the lines of the plan converge to a common center, and the ribs of the vaulting meet upon the capitals of the piers and columns, seeming to radiate thence to still other centers in the loftier vaults v^hich finally meet in a center common to all.
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THE UWOP RADIATION ILLUSTRATED IN NATURE
CHANGLESS CHANGE 59
The tracery of the great roses, high up in the f agades of the cathe- drals of Paris and of Amiens, ill- ustrate Radiation, in the one case masculine: straight, angular, di- rect; in the feminine : curved, flow- ing, sinuous. The same Beautiful Necessity determined the char- acteristics of much of the ornament of widely separated styles and periods: the Egyptian lotus, the Greek honeysuckle, the Roman acanthus, Gothic leaf work — to snatch at random four blossoms from the sheaf of time. The radial principle still inherent in the debased ornament of the late Renaissance gives that ornament a unity, a coherence, and a kind of beauty all its own (Illus- tration 35).
Such are a few of the more obvious laws of natural beauty and their ap- plication to the art of architecture. The list is by no means exhausted, but it is not the multiplicity and di- versity of these laws 8* which is important
UAND OtAR
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WTEIt. EtNEiT ■mOMMON SETON
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THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
THE imr OF RADIATION
FRENCH RENAISSANCE \y^znrrms.
85
to keep in mind, ' so much as their related- ness and coordination, for they are but differ- ent aspects of the One Law, that whereby the Logos manifests in time and space. A brief re- capitulation will serve to make this correla- tion plain, and at the same time fix what has been written more firmly in the reader's mind.
First comes the law of Unity; then, since every unit is in its essence twofold, there is the law of Polarity; but this duality is not static but dynamic, the two parts acting and reacting upon one another to produce a third — hence the law of Trinity. Given this third term, and the innumerable combinations made pos- sible by its relations to and reactions upon the original pair, the law of Multiplicity in Unity naturally fol- lows, as does the law of Consonance, or rep- etition, since the prim- al process of differen- tiation tends to repeat itself, and the original combinations to reap- pear — but to reappear in changed form, hence the law of Diversity in Monotony. The law of Balance is seen to be but a modification of the law of Polarity, and since all
CHANGLESS CHANGE 6l
things are waxing and waning, there is the law whereby they wax and wane, that of Rhythmic Change. Radiation redis- covers and reaffirms, even in the utmost complexity, that essential and fundamental unity from which complexity was wrought.
Everything, beautiful or ugly, obeys and illustrates one or' another of these laws, so universal are they, so inseparably at- tendant upon every kind of manifestation in time and space. It is the number of them which finds illustration within small compass, and the aptness and completeness of such illustration, which makes for beauty, because beauty is thfe fine flower of a sort of sublime ingenuity. A work of art is nothing if not artful: like an acrostic, the more different ways it can be read — up, down, across, from right to left and from left to right — the better it is, other things being equal. This statement, of course, may be construed in such a way as to appear absurd; what is meant is simply that the more a work of art is freighted and fraught with meaning beyond meaning, the more secure its immortality, the more powerful its appeal. For enjoyment, it is not necessary that all these meanings should be fathomed, it is only necessary that they should be felt.
Consider for a moment the manner in which Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, an acknowledged masterpiece, conforms to every one of the laws of beauty enumerated above (Illustra- tion 32). It illustrates the law of Unity in that it movingly portrays a single significant episode in the life of Christ. The eye is led to dwell upon the central personage of this drama by many artful expedients: the visible part of the figure of Christ conforms to the lines of an equilateral triangle placed exactly in the center of the picture; the figure is separated by a considerable space from the groups of the disciples on either hand, and stands relieved against the largest parallelogram of light, and the vanishing point of the perspective is in the head
62 THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
of Christ, at the apex, therefore, of the triangle. The law of Polarity finds fulfilment in the complex and flowing lines of the draped figures contrasted with the simple parallelogram of the cloth-covered table, and the severe architecture of the room. The law of Trinity is exemplified in the three windows, and in the subdivision of the twelve figures of the disciples into four groups of three figures each. The law of Consonance appears in the repetition of the horizontal lines of the table in the ceiling above; and in the central triangle before referred to, continued and echoed, as it were, in the triangular supports of the table visible underneath the cloth. The law of Diversity in Monotony is illustrated in the varying disposition of the heads of the figures in the four groups of three; the law of Balance in the essential symmetry of the entire composition; the law of Rhythmic Change in the diminishing of the wall and ceiling spaces; and the law of Radiation in the convergence of all the perspec- tive lines to a single significant point.
To illustrate further the universality of these laws, consider now their application to a single work of architecture: the Taj Mahal, one of the most beautiful buildings of the world (Illus- tration 36) . It is a unit, but twofold, for it consists of a curved part and an angular part, roughly figured as an inverted cup upon a cube; each of these (seen in parallel perspective, at the end of the principal vista) is threefold, for there are two sides and a central parallelogram, and two lesser domes flank the great dome. The composition is rich in consonances, for the side arches echo the central one, the subordinate domes the great dome, and the lanterns of the outstanding minarets repeat the principal motif. Diversity in Monotony appears abun- dantly in the ornament, which is intricate and infinitely various; the law of Balance is everywhere operative in the symmetry of the entire design. Rhythmic Change appears in the tapering of
CHANGLESS CHANGE 63
the minarets, the outlines of the domes and their mass relations to one another ; and finally, the whole effect is of radiation from a central point, of elements disposed on radial lines.
It would be fatuous to contend that the prime object of a work of architecture is to obey and illustrate these laws. The prime object of a work of architecture is to fulfill certain defi- nite conditions in a practical, economical, and admirable way, and in fulfilling to express as far as possible these conditions, making the form express the function. The architect who is also an artist however will do this and something beyond : work- ing for the most part unconsciously, harmoniously, joyously, his building will obey and illustrate natural laws — ^these laws of beauty — and to the extent it does so it will be a work of art; for art is the method of nature carried into those higher regions of thought and feeling which man alone inhabits : regions which it is one of the purposes of theosophy to explore.
IV THE BODILY TEMPLE
CARLYLE says : "There is but one temple in the world, and that is the body of man." If the body is, as he de- clares, a temple, it is not less true that a temple or any work of architectural art is a larger body which man has created for his uses, just as the individual self is housed within its stronghold of flesh and bones. Architectural beauty like human beauty depends upon the proper subordination of parts to the whole, the harmonious interrelation between these parts, the expressiveness of each of its function or functions, and when these are many and diverse, their reconcilement one with an- other. This being so, a study of the human figure with a view to analyzing the sources of its beauty cannot fail to be profit- able. Pursued intelligently, such a study will stimulate the mind to a perception of those simple yet subtle laws according to which nature everjrwhere works, and it will educate the eye in the finest known school of proportion, training it to dis- tinguish minute differences, in the same way that the hearing of. good music cultivates the ear.
Those principles of natural beauty which formed the subject of the two preceding essays are all exemplified in the ideally perfect human figure. Though essentially a unit, there is a well marked division into right and left — "Hands to hands, and feet to feet, in one body grooms and brides." There are two arms, two legs, two ears, two eyes, and two lids to each eye ; the nose has two nostrils, the mouth has two lips. Moreover, the
64
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THE BODILY TEMPLE
terms of such pairs are mas- culine and feminine with
respect to each other, one
being active and the other
passive. Owing to the
great size and one-sided
position of the liver, the
right half of the body is
heavier than the left; the
right arm is usually longer
and more muscular than the
left; the right eye is slightly
higher than its fellow. In
speaking and eating the lower jaw and under lip are active and
mobile with relation to the upper; in winking it is the upper
eyelid which is the more active. That "inevitable duality" which is exhibited in the form of the body characterizes its moti-ons also. In the act of walking for example, a forward movement is attained by means of a forward and a backward movement of the thighs on the axis of the hips ; this leg move- ment becomes twofold again below the knee, and the feet move up and down independently on the axis of the -ankle. A sim- ilar progression is followed in raising the arm and hand: motion is communicated first to the larger parts, through them to the smaller and thence to the extremities, becoming more rapid and complex as it progresses, so that all free and natural movements of the limbs describe invisible lines of beauty in the air. Coexistent with this pervasive duality there is a threefold division of the figure into trunk, head and limbs: a superior trinity of head and arms, and an inferior trinity of trunk and legs. The limbs are divided threefold into upper-arm, fore- arm and hand; thigh, leg and foot. The hand flowers out'
66 THE BEAUTIFUL NECESSITY
into fingers and the foot into toes, each with a threefold articulation; and in this way is efifcctei that transition from unity to multiplicity, from simplicity to complexity, which appears to be so universal throughout nature, and of which a tree is the perfect symbol.
The body is rich in veiled repetitions, echoes, consonances. The head and arms are in a sense a refinement upon the trunk and legs, there being a clearly traceable correspondence between their various parts. The hand is the body in little — "Your soft hand is a woman of itself" — the palm, the trunk; the four fingers, the four limbs ; and the thumb, the head ; -each finger is a little arm, each finger tip a little palm. The lips are the lids of the mouth, the lids are the lips of the eyes — and so on. The law of Rythmic Diminu
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tion is illustrated i« the tapering of the entire body and of the limbs, in the graduated sizes and lengths of the palm and the toes, and in the suc- cessively decreasing length of the palm and the joints of the fingers, so that in closing the hand the fingers describe natural spirals (Illustra- tions 37, 38). Finally, the limbs radiate as it were from the trunk, the fingers from a point in the wrist, the toes from a point in the ankle. The ribs radiate from the spinal