This lesson studies Haile Selassie's "Fine Arts", delivered in its historical setting. After this short context paragraph, the reading gives the speech itself so students can examine perspective, values, and contextual evidence in the speaker's own words.

A purely materialistic art would be like a tree which is expected to bear fruit without flowering and to sacrifice grace and beauty for mere utility.

Our admiration for the creator's handiwork should not be limited to those things he has provided us with for our daily needs, but should include all that is good and beautiful.

It is these tender feelings of deep and silent admiration evoked from our hearts by the beauties of creation that should find adequate expression in the fine arts.

Music, drama and the other arts are rooted in the ancient history of our empire, and their development to an even higher peak of perfection will be possible in the atmosphere of a university. Ethiopia possesses an ancient literature and its study can be fostered here so that the Ethiopian youth inspired by this national example, may raise it to yet higher levels of excellence.

The study of the heroic history of our empire will stimulate the imagination of building authors and teachers.