Or, to shoot an arrow as far as possible, it is not enough to merely draw the bow to its utmost span or tension.  If just as it goes you will give the bow a quick push, though the effort be trifling, the arrow will fly almost as far again as it would have done without it.

Or, if, 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 of 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 to subsequently respond.  It is more than merely thinking what we are to do; it is the bidding or ordering self to fulfill a task before willing it.

Forethought in the senses employed or implied as here described means much more than mere previous consideration or reflection, which may be very feeble.  It is, in fact, “constructive,” which, as inventive, implies active thought.  “Forethought stimulates, aids the success of honest aims.”  Therefore, as the active principle in mental work, I regard it as a kind of self-impulse, or that minor part in the division of the force employed which sets the major into action.  Now, if we really understand this and can succeed in employing Forethought as the preparation for, and impulse to, Self-Suggestion, we shall greatly aid the success of the latter, because the former insures attention and interest.  Forethought may be brief, but it should always be energetic.  By cultivating it we acquire the enviable talent of those men who take in everything at a glance, and act promptly, like a NAPOLEON.  This power is universally believed to be entirely innate or a gift; but it can be induced or developed in all minds in proportion to the will by practice.

Be it observed that as the experimenter progresses in the development of will by suggestion, he can gradually lay aside the latter, or all processes, especially if he work to such an end, anticipating it.  Then he simply acts by clear will and strength, and Forethought constitutes all his stock-in-trade, process or aid.  He preconceives and wills energetically at once, and by practice and repetition Forethought becomes a marvelous help on all occasions and emergencies.

To make it of avail the one who frequently practices self-suggestion, at first with, and then without sleep, will inevitably find ere long that to facilitate his work, or to succeed he must first write, as it were, or plan a preface, synopsis, or epitome of his proposed work, to start it and combine with it 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, daily or nightly, combined with the energetic impulse to send it off, will ere long give the operator a conception of what I mean by Foresight 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.