philosopher Taine says: "A nation that has no art has no history."

Light and colors are heaven's gift to this Arab East, setting it apart from the world in such a way that the stranger stands before it dazzled and enchanted.

The fine arts, as we know, are a part of culture. Shortly before the war they had begun to unfold in a progress that did not please certain interested par-ties, who set about denying the activity of this blessed movement and imposing methods that true art, nature, and taste disown — all this under a veil of char-latanry that worked upon some of those weak in artistic faith, so that feebleness took hold of them. When they painted a Lebanese scene it appeared strange, or a face, it came out foreign. They forgot that art is neither bought nor sold; it is a noble feeling springing from the pure soul, mingling with nature so that the two together may represent a true art of the soul's image and its stirrings — its mantle sincerity, its essence nature, its source faith.

How splendid is what da Vinci, the imam of art, said: "Nature is the one and only book that teaches us the truth of art."