Perhaps few of us give to any subject the close attention which alone can prove its own effectiveness and demonstrate the fact that there goes with such steadily sustained attention a subtle power of extended, or accentuated, consciousness.  When ten minutes is given to a certain subject and other thoughts are constantly intruding, so that when the ten minutes have passed only five minutes have actually been devoted to the subject, the result is by no means a half of what would have been accomplished had the whole of the ten minutes been given to uninterrupted attention.  The time thus spent in wavering attention is practically without effect.  The connection between mind and subject has not been complete.  Mind and subject were, so to say, out of focus.  Attention must be sustained to the point where it becomes concentration.  The mind must be used as a sun-glass can be used.  Hold the glass between sun and paper, out of focus, for an hour and nothing will happen.  A yellow circle of light falls on the paper and that is all.  But bring it into perfect focus, concentrating the rays to the finest possible point, and the paper turns brown and finally bursts into the fire that will consume it.  They are the same rays that were previously ineffective.  Concentration produced results.

The mind must be brought under such complete control of the will that it can be manipulated like a search-light, turned in this direction or that, or flung full upon some obscure subject and held steadily there till it illuminates every detail of it, as the search-light sends a dazzling ray through space and shows every rock and tree on a hillside far away through the darkness of the night.

The third necessity is keen intelligence.  The force of desire, directed by the will, must be supplemented by an alert mind.  There is a popular notion that good motives are sufficient in themselves and that when one has the desire to attain spiritual illumination, plus the will to achieve, nothing more is needed but purity of purpose.  But this is a misconception.  It is true that the mystic makes devotion the vital thing in his spiritual growth; and it is also true that the three paths of action, knowledge and devotion blend and become one at a higher stage.  But while there are methods of development in which intellect is not at first made a chief factor it can by no means be ignored in the long-run; nor are we now considering those methods.  A good intellect, therefore, is a necessary part of the equipment.

Good motives play a most important part, indeed, in occult progress.  They safeguard the aspirant on his upward way.  Without pure motives, without a large measure of unselfishness, the greatest dangers would encompass him.  But good motives cannot take the place of good sense and relieve him of the necessity of thinking.  He must develop judgment and discrimination.  There are things he must know, and he must use his knowledge, or difficulties will