We have planned The Mentor with the thought of giving members of the Association the essential information that they should have on different subjects. Everyone is not fortunate enough to have a good reference library--some are not even in touch with reference books. It is the purpose of The Mentor, therefore, to come like a good friend who is well informed and spend a few minutes a day with you, telling you in simple language about the many interesting and important things, events, and people of the world. * * * * * And you don't have to make notes as the professor did. You don't have to go looking for books of reference on the subject. The Mentor not only gives you in an interesting way the essential facts about a thing, together with illustrations, but it gives you a list of the important reference books on the subject. [Illustration: ANGEL WITH VIOLIN, BY MELOZZO DA FORLI] _Melozzo da Forlì_ ONE Today we think of Italy as one united country. For that reason it is difficult for many of us to realize the Italy of Melozzo da Forlì's (mel-ot´-so day for-lee´) time. Then there was no union--practically no Italy. The country was rent by the strivings of many tiny principalities, each jealous of the other, each trying to outdo the other, each quick to seize an opportunity to work its neighbor harm. Every one of the petty princes was seeking to beautify his capital city, to have his court outshine those of his rivals. If he desired to be known as a patron of art and letters, poets, architects, and philosophers were invited to associate themselves with him. Artists, like the scholars, had to rely on the favor of such princes for their living. In later years the introduction of oil painting made easy the sending of a panel or a canvas as the gift of one lord to another. But before that time, instead of sending the painter's work, it would have been necessary to send the painter; for most of the work was done in another way. In fresco painting the artist was obliged to work directly on the wall on which the picture was to be seen when finished. Often he himself applied the wet plaster, and after smoothing it laid on the color. He had to work rapidly; for when the plaster had dried every addition or correction showed. But before becoming sufficiently generous to give away their artist's work most of the nobles first employed their artists to decorate their own chapels or palaces for them. It was under the patronage of one of the cardinals, a nephew of Pope Pius IV, that Melozzo da Forlì painted his angels. Pius IV did not wish to be behind his neighbors in the encouragement of the fine arts. He wanted Rome to be the finest city in the world, and set about making it so. Those who wished to please him were not slow to follow his leading.