“How do you gather all this knowledge?” she was once asked. “What time do you find to read? You seem to us to be busily engaged through all your working hours.” “You forget my sedan chair,” was Madame de Staël’s answer. While being carried in her chair she had as a companion a book or some bit of profitable reading, with which she mentally capitalized those brief intervals in her busy day.

We have been informed that a very eminent American preacher read no less than one hundred books in the course of three years, at his dining table. During that period of time he had always a book beside him at the table, and, whenever delays occurred, he would advance a few pages. The inference from this is that the divine was either a very fast reader, or that his table service was very slow; but in either case the results accomplished are an impressive demonstration of the value of the odd moment.

Suppose, now, that the essential information from lengthy books should be put into an article of not over 2,500 words, by a competent authority, and this material be put before you in a simple, readable manner, accompanied by illustrations. Would not that be the best possible mental fare for the odd moment? That is what The Mentor does. In the course of a year a reader of The Mentor gets the substance of the contents of many books. And it takes only a few minutes to read a single number of The Mentor.

FRANZ LISZT