when we simply keep ourselves receptive we are more perfect than when at work."[105] But this preparatory state of surrendered quiet must at once be qualified by the second point: _Attention_.

It is based upon the right use of the will, and is not a limp yielding to anything or nothing.

It has an ordained deliberate aim, is a behaviour-cycle directed to an end; and this it is that marks out the real and fruitful quiet of the contemplative from the non-directed surrender of mere quietism.
"Nothing," says St.Teresa, "is learnt without a little pains.

For the love of God, sisters, account that care well employed that ye shall bestow on this thing."[106] The quieted mind must receive and hold, yet without discursive thought, the idea which it desires to realize; and this idea must interest and be real for it, so that attention is concentrated on it spontaneously.

The more completely the idea absorbs us, the greater its transforming power: when interest wavers, the suggestion begins to lose ground.