atent and unexpected powers that may be evoked to
the great increase of his own efficiency.

We have nothing historically new to offer, though the principle we are
to mention is practically unknown or at least unutilized. It is the
great, controlling principle of Forethought, the application of which is
far wider than thought itself, extending to all the functions of the
soul and even affecting bodily energy and health. The action of
Forethought is based on the fact that there is more to ourselves than we
are aware of. We are not ordinarily conscious of our past lives, for
instance, yet a supreme crisis, such as falling from a height, may make
a man's whole past in an instant flash before him in review. Under
sudden stress a man may develop powers of leadership or resolution that
nobody could have foreseen and that he himself cannot account for. Our
selves as we know them are, so to speak, only the top soil of our entire
natures. Every conscious personality is like a farm in an oil district.
It is underlain by an unrealized wealth that may never be brought to
light. Some accident may reveal the treasure, but if the owner suspects
its existence he may bore for it. To show how this boring may be done is
one of the purposes of the present paper. But let us first assure
ourselves further of the existence of this hidden fund of energy.

If in the early fifties of the last century a vote had been taken on the
two men in America who ten years later would stand head and shoulders
above their countrymen in position and recognized ability, it is
probable that not one single vote would have been cast for a slouchy
Missouri farmer or a shabby Illinois lawyer, certainly not for the
former. Grant and Lincoln themselves would not have expected a vote. Yet
their powers existed then, unrealized by their owners, and only needing
the proper stimulus to bring them out. That stimulus was responsibility;
and, great as their achievements were under this stimulus, neither man
appears to have reached his limit; each apparently had still a fund of
reserve power to be expended on yet greater occasions had they arisen.
This is not to say that all men have an equal fund of unrecognized
ability. The experiences of the great struggle out of which Lincoln and
Grant came supreme are alone sufficient to show how unequal are men's
endowments. A McClellan proves himself an unsurpassed organizer, but no
fighter; a Burnside displays marked ability in leadin