The Mentor, for the wise thought beneath that injunction of the emperor’s is just what inspired The Mentor plan.

The method pursued in The Mentor finds, too, a striking parallel in Japanese life. In seeking knowledge and in the enjoyment of beautiful things, the Japanese set their minds on “one thing at a time.” Their habit of thought and their method of study are such as might be expressed in The Mentor principle, “Learn one thing every day.”

The thoroughness of the Japanese is well known. Their intelligence, enterprise, and up-to-dateness have been illustrated many times in the arts of peace and in the science of war. In this one particular principle of concentration in study, and single mindedness in the enjoyment of beautiful things, the Japanese may well be taken as a model for the rest of mankind.

My friend Takashima showed me lately a beautiful vase. It stood on a pedestal in a room that seemed to me empty. Simple matting covered the floor; simply decorated screens covered the walls; a few pieces of furniture, equally simple, were all that the room contained—beside that vase. “Is it not beautiful?” he said, and then he gave me its history, telling me who, among the early masters of Chinese pottery, had designed and shaped this exquisite work of art. I remarked on the reverence that he showed for a single work of art in devoting a room to it alone. “Enjoy one thing of beauty at a time,” he said. “I could not enjoy this vase in a room filled with miscellaneous things. As well go to a shop. The mind would be in chaos—knowing nothing well and appreciating nothing to the full.”

Such had always been Takashima’s habit. He said it was a habit of his people. “Why,” he asked, “should you have more than one thing of beauty in your room at a time? Enjoy it to the full. Then place something else there, but, before removing it, get out of it all that there is in it of beauty and of knowledge. You cannot do this in the confusion of a room filled with many varied things.” The incident was so strikingly in accord with The Mentor idea that it seemed as if Takashima might the next moment have added the phrase, “Learn one thing every day.”

And so the principle underlying the plan of The Mentor Association is one approved and exercised by a nation of intelligent people. How many other people follow this direct and simple path to knowledge we cannot say, but that it is not only the direct and simple way, but the one satisfying and effective way of acquiring knowledge, is plain. On that principle The Mentor Association is founded, and by following that principle, the members of the Association can add day by day to their store of knowledge, and can fully and intelligently enjoy the beautiful things in art.

COPYRIGHT 1903 THE MACMILLAN CO

HENRY WARD BEECHER—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

REPRODUCED FROM “AMERICAN SCULPTURE” BY LORADO TAFT

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

The life of John Quincy Adams Ward was a long record of dignified success. Born in the beginning of the last century, at the time when American sculpture was in a very elementary stage, he lived to see this art mature into something of which our country may well be proud. Quiet simplicity and impressiveness of mass characterize Ward’s work. Everything he did was big and effective.

John Quincy Adams Ward was born on June 29, 1830, near Urbana, Ohio. He was a boy that enjoyed play; but he did not neglect his work. He loved the open air. Riding, hunting or fishing—he liked them all. He received his education in the village schools.

One day the young boy found some clay on his father’s farm. He took a handful of it and modeled the face of an old negro who lived nearby. Everyone who saw this early attempt said that it was “wonderful.” It may have been. At any rate, Ward did not immediately begin to dream of becoming a great sculptor. In this he differed from most beginners whose first work is called great by their friends.

Not until he was nineteen years old did he really find out his destiny. In 1849 he paid a visit to a sister in Brooklyn. One day he happened to pass the studio of the sculptor H. K. Browne. The door of the studio was open, and Ward glanced inside. The scene fascinated him. He returned to the place again and again. Finally he found his way into this world of mystery, and at length by some miracle became one of the sculptor’s pupils.

It would have been hard for Ward to have found a better master in all America. He studied under Browne from 1850 to 1857. He learned everything, from kneading clay to marble carving. By 1861, when he opened a studio of his own in New York City, he had executed busts of Joshua R. Giddings, Alexander H. Stephens, and Hannibal Hamlin, prepared the first sketch for “The Indian Hunter,” his great work now in Central Park, New York City, and made studies among the Indians themselves for this work.

From that time on success was his. He worked hard and conscientiously. His statues of Washington, Beecher, and Horace Greeley are all recognized as great pieces of portrait sculpture. Unlike many of the early sculptors of America, he acquired his training, his inspirations, and his themes from his own country.

When the National Sculpture Society was organized in New York in 1896, Ward was elected to be the first president. He died in New York City on May 1, 1910.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE SHAW MEMORIAL—AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS

AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

St. Gaudens is the name of a little town in the south of France and close to the foot of the Pyrenees. A humble shoemaker named Bernard Paul Ernest dwelt there, and in 1848, after he had moved to Dublin, Ireland, he had a son, to whom he gave the name Augustus. The mother of the boy was a native of Dublin; her maiden name was