Now it seems a simple thing to say, and it is therefore all the harder to understand, that before going to work at anything which will require perseverance and repeated effort we can facilitate the result amazingly by thinking over and anticipating it, so that when the weariness comes it will not be as a discouraging novelty, but as something of course, even as a fisherman accepts his wet feet, or the mosquitoes.

But how this disposition to grow weary of work or to become inattentive may be literally and very completely conjured away will be more fully explained in another chapter.

For this let it suffice to say that earnest _forethought_, and the more of it the better, bestowed on aught which we intend to undertake, is a thing rarely attempted in the real sense in which I mean it, but which, when given, eases every burden and lightens every toil.
Mere _forethought_ repeated is the easiest of mental efforts.

Yet even a little of it asserted before undertaking a task will wonderfully facilitate the work.
"Hypnotism," says Dr.JAMES R.COCKE, "can be used to train the attention of persons habitually inattentive." But, in fact, forethinking in any way is the minor or initiatory stage of Suggestion.

Both are gradual persuasion of the nervous system into habit.
And on this text a marvelous sermon could be preached, which, if understood, would sink deeply into every heart, inspiring some while alarming others, but greatly cheering the brave.