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done without it. Or, as is well known, in wielding a very sharp

saber, we make the draw-cut, that is if we add to the blow or
chop, as with an axe, a certain slight pull and simultaneously
we can cut through a silk handkerchief or a sheep. Forethought
is the tap on the bell, the push on the bow, the draw on the
saber. It is the deliberate yet rapid action of the mind when
before falling to sleep or dismissing thought we bid the mind
subsequently to respond. It is more than merely thinking we
are to do it; it is the bidding or ordering self to fulfill a task
before willing it. To make it of avail, one must first write, as
it were, or plan a preface, synopsis or epitome of his proposed
work, to start it and combine it with a resolve or decree that it
must be done, the latter being the tap on the bell knob. Now
the habit of composing the plan as perfectly, yet as succinctly
as possible combined with the energetic impulse to send it off,
will ere long give the operator a conception of what I mean by
Forethought, which by description I cannot. And when grown
familiar and really mastered, its possessor will find that his
power to think and act promptly in all the emergencies of life
has greatly increased. There is a curious and very illustrative
instance of Forethought in the sense in which I am endeavoring
to explain it, given in the novel, the Scalp Hunters by Mayne
Reid: His aim with the rifle is infallible, and it would seem as
if the ball obeyed his Will. There must be a kind of directing
principle in his mind, independent of strength of nerve and sight.
He and one other are the only men in whom I have observed
this singular power. This simply means the exercise in a second,
as it were, of the tap on the bell knob, or the projection of
the will into the proposed shot, and which may be applied to
any act Gymnasts, leapers and the like are all familiar with it.
It springs from resolute confidence and self-impulse enforced;
but it also creates them, and the growth is very great and rapid
when the idea is much kept before the mind. In this latter lies
most of the problem.
The Subconscious Will