The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through which grace might pass. Every void (that is not accepted) produces hatred, bitterness, sourness, rancor. The evil one wishes upon what one hates, and imagines, restores the balance. The militiamen of the "Spanish Testament" who invented victories in order to bear dying—an example of the void-filling imagination. Though one stands to gain nothing from victory, one can bear dying for a cause that will triumph, not for a cause that will be defeated. To do so for something utterly devoid of strength would be superhuman (the disciples of Christ). The thought of death calls for a counterweight, and this counterweight—grace apart—can only be a lie. The void-filling imagination is essentially a liar. It excludes the third dimension, for only real objects exist in three dimensions. It excludes multiple relations. Try to define things that, while actually occurring, remain in a sense imaginary. War. Crimes. Revenge. Extreme misfortune. The crimes in Spain were actually committed and yet resembled mere boasting. Realities that have no more dimensions than a dream.
In evil, as in dreams, there are no multiple readings. Hence the simplicity of criminals.
Crimes flat as dreams on both sides: the side of the executioner and the side of the victim. What is more dreadful than dying in a nightmare?
Compensations. Marius imagined future vengeance. Napoleon dreamed of posterity. Wilhelm II desired a cup of tea. His imagination was not strongly enough attached to power to span the years: it turned toward a cup of tea.
The adoration of the great by the people in the seventeenth century (La Bruyere). This was an effect of the void-filling imagination, an effect that has vanished since money took its place. Two base effects, but money more so.
In any situation whatsoever, if one halts the void-filling imagination, there is a void (poor in spirit).
In any situation (but in some, at the cost of what degradation!) the imagination can fill the void. This is how mediocre beings can be prisoners, slaves, prostitutes, and pass through any suffering without purification.
Continually suspend in oneself the work of the void-filling imagination.
If one accepts any void whatsoever, what stroke of fate can prevent one from loving the universe?
One is assured that, whatever happens, the universe is full.