While opportunity and choice may be keywords for Human Experience (the previous category), beauty is unquestionably the keyword for The Arts in Culture. What the previous category does for the cultivation of unassailable integrity, this one does for the cultivation of aesthetic refinement. In this section, P.B. reverently explores the role of the Beautiful in human culture, including subsections on the mission of inspired art, creativity, genius, and the relationship of art and mystical experience. Here he also comments on specific works in a variety of art forms that have special value for individuals consciously seeking spiritual inspiration.
We should point out that P.B. placed his observations on literature and the art of writing in three different areas of his notebooks. Some appear in category twelve, Reflections on My Life and Writings. Another portion of them appears in the final chapter of The Arts in Culture. The vast majority of them, however, were placed into a complete notebook separate from the 1-28 "Ideas'' series. If copyright issues can be resolved, this third section will be published along with other independent notebooks in the future.
Editorial conventions here are the same as stated in the introductions to Perspectives and The Quest. Likewise, (P) at the end of a para indicates that it also appears in Perspectives, the introductory volume to this series.