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_Editorial_
We have just received the following letter from a reader of The Mentor:
"I have examined with great care and profit a copy of The Mentor
just received. There is only one suggestion that I can make towards
its improvement, and that is that on the back of the photogravures
there should be a pronunciation scheme for all foreign names. Not
everyone who reads is able to pronounce properly the Spanish, French,
or Italian; particularly is this true of names and places. The
pronunciation might be put in brackets right after the names, or made a
sort of marginal affair."
* * * * *
This is the kind of letter we like to get. The suggestion is a good
one. We wrote at once to the writer, saying that pronunciation would be
indicated wherever foreign names were used. We have done so in the text
pages of The Mentor--our readers know that. We have not been doing it
in the stories printed on the back of The Mentor gravures. There was
no reason for not doing it. The indication of pronunciations should
accompany foreign names wherever they are used. The writer of the above
has done us a real service in calling attention to the matter. We wish
that readers would write to us whenever they have a suggestion that
they think would add to the value and usefulness of The Mentor.
* * * * *
Half knowledge on any subject is not of much use. The case of a
college professor comes to mind. He was very strong on what he called
"completing a thought and finishing a fact." He said that as a man
walked through life or looked through books he was constantly in an
atmosphere of information--that facts were darting like meteors all
about him. He said that the habit of mind of most people was slovenly.
Such complete facts as come to their attention are perhaps absorbed.
Half facts come along, and most people do not "follow them up to a
finish." The habit of this professor was to carry a memorandum pad
in his pocket, and whenever he would hear a statement or receive a
_bit_ of knowledge he would jot down a note and then, in some leisure
moment, look the matter up in an authoritative reference book, thereby
completing his information and, as he put it, "sewing it up good and
tight" for future use.
* * * * *
The result is that that college professor knows what he knows
thoroughly and accurately. He is never heard saying, as so many do
when a subject is mentioned, "Oh, what about that. I have had bits
of information concerning it from time to time. What does it mean?"
The professor had looked up the matter when he got his first bit of
information, and, as a result, he had digested the subject and in his
way owned it.
* * * * *
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_