But this is not an essay on ideals. My purpose is definite and practical. It is simply to recall the fact at the beginning of a new year that The Mentor was conceived in idealism; that it has been conducted in the spirit of idealism, and to reaffirm on this day our devotion to the ideal that has dominated The Mentor from the beginning--the ideal of Service. The Mentor Association was founded for the benefit of thousands of people who are eagerly seeking for information in the various fields of knowledge. We set out to give such information in a simple, attractive way by text and by pictures, and to add to that a general service of information. We were told by many that the ideal of service that we had before us could not be realized in this present day and generation of busy periodical publishing. Our ideal, like that of many others, was pronounced a Utopian dream--a visionary undertaking. It has often been remarked that while idealists are perfectly confident of the successful outcome of their dreams, very few will put any money into them. Just this in your ear, good reader: those who founded The Mentor not only had convictions, but had the courage of them. Many thousands of dollars have been spent on The Mentor Ideal, and now that The Mentor Plan is an assured success we know that we are "turning our dreams into fact." * * * * * It is not an editorial "we" that I am using. "We" includes those of us who are conducting The Mentor, but it means chiefly "you"--the 60,000 of "you" who make up The Mentor Association. Whether The Mentor Ideal was a distant, unattainable one was not clear to us until we heard from you. Now we know. _You_ made The Mentor, and The Mentor is made for you. [Illustration: W. D. Moffat EDITOR] THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL THE ADVISORY BOARD JOHN G. HIBBEN, _President of Princeton University_ HAMILTON W. MABIE, _Author and Editor_ JOHN C. VAN DYKE, _Professor of the History of Art, Rutgers College_ ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, _Professor of Government, Harvard University_ WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, _Director New York Zoölogical Park_ DWIGHT L. ELMENDORF, _Lecturer and Traveler_ The purpose of The Mentor Association is to give its members, in an interesting and attractive way, the information in various fields of knowledge which everybody wants to have. The information is imparted by interesting reading matter, prepared under the direction of leading authorities, and by beautiful pictures, produced by the most highly perfected modern processes. THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH