But our answer would be incomplete if it failed to include mention of a most interesting source of suggestion--the readers of The Mentor. It is a great pleasure to say this, for it is the best evidence in the world of the coöperative spirit that exists in The Mentor Association. That is the spirit we seek. * * * * * We have had some of the most valuable suggestions from Mentor readers. Only last week we received a letter from an interested reader who had been following the historical articles in The Mentor. She wanted to know what we had in store for a lover of history. She suggested that it would be interesting to take up history from several special points of view--the great historic rivers for example. The idea is good. Think of the historic value and of the human interest in the story of the Rhine; the story of the Nile; the story of the Danube; the story of the Mississippi! The great rivers of the world have borne some of the most important historic events along on their currents. We are planning a set of articles on this subject. * * * * * This is but one case in which a reader of The Mentor has helped us. We could cite many others. And in acknowledging them we want to express our heartfelt appreciation of the earnest interest shown by our readers in The Mentor. Our mail brims over with it every day. [Illustration: LADY WENTWORTH, BY JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY--LENOX LIBRARY, N. Y.] _MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_ _John Singleton Copley_ ONE The parentage of John Singleton Copley was Irish. He was born in America. The most active years of his art career were spent in England. About the time of his birth in Boston, July 3, 1737, his father died, and the boy was named after his grandfather on his mother’s side, John Singleton of Quinville Abbey, County Clare. After ten years his mother married Peter Pelham, a painter and mezzotint engraver. From him Copley received instruction and encouragement in art. But Pelham died when Copley was fourteen, and the boy had then to be his own master. He was living in Boston at a time when Boston had but 18,000 inhabitants. His skill in painting gained him renown through-out the city. He was a handsome, brilliant young man, dressing and living in style, and moving in the best society. Within the limited range of New England life he played something of the part that Van Dyck in his time played in the larger world of Holland and England.