M & D Vacuum-filling. Hidden ambiguity intended.

[Mark Kohut]

p. 363.  Mason, the science-trained mind, sez,
........."the Brain's anxiety to fill the Vacuum at any cost".

a Locke allusion? introspection and a leap of sense impressionism?

"Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of *consciousness
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness>*. He postulated that, at
birth, the mind <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind> was a blank slate
or *tabula
rasa <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa>*. Contrary to Cartesian
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes> philosophy based on pre-existing
concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innatism>, and that knowledge
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge> is instead determined only by
experience <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism> derived from sense
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense> perception
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception>.[6]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke#cite_note-6>
 Challenging the work of others, Locke is said to have established the
method of introspection <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection>, or
observing the emotions and behaviours of one’s self.[7]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke#cite_note-7>"

Also, Mason's mindful counter-tug to his Rebecca hopes and projections?

(Sterne is full of Locke allusions and Locke joshing and there is a major
Sterne allusion coming up in this chapter)