323 The Lover fell sick, and made his testament with the counsel of his Beloved. His sins and faults he bequeathed to penance and contrition; worldly pleasures to contempt. To his eyes he left tears; to his heart sighs of love; to his understanding his Beloved’s graces, and to his memory the Passion which his Beloved endured for love of him. And to his activity he bequeathed the guidance of unbelievers, who go to their doom through ignorance. 324 The scent of flowers brought to the Lover’s mind the evil stench of riches and meanness, of old age and lasciviousness, of discontent and pride. The taste of sweet things recalled to him the bitterness of temporal possessions and of entering and quitting this world. The enjoyment of earthly pleasures made him feel how quickly this world passes, and how the delights which are here so pleasant may be the occasion of eternal torments. 325 The Lover endured hunger and thirst, cold and heat, poverty and nakedness, sickness and tribulations; and he would have died had he not had remembrance of his Beloved, who healed him with hope and memory, with the renunciation of this world and contempt for the revilings of men. 326 The Lover made his bed between trials and joys: in joys he lay down to sleep and in trials he awakened. Which of these two, think you, was nearer to the bed of the Lover? 327 In anger the Lover lay down to sleep, resenting the revilings of men; in patience he awakened, remembering his Beloved. Which, think you, did the Lover feel the more deeply--the love of his Beloved or the scorn of men? 328 The Lover thought upon death, and he was afraid, until he remembered the city of his Beloved, to which love and death are the gates and the entrance. 329 Two men were disputing concerning simplicity, the one against the other. And the one said: ‘The simple man is he who knows nothing.’ The other said: ‘The simple man is he who lives without sin.’ And the Lover came and said: ‘True simplicity has he who commits all his ways to my Beloved.’ 330 ‘For simplicity is to exalt faith above understanding, which it so far exceeds, and in all that pertains to my Beloved it is to avoid completely all things vain, superfluous, curious, over-subtle and presumptuous. For all these are contrary to simplicity.’ 331 Another time they both inquired of him, asking that he would tell them if the science of the simple is a great one. He answered: ‘The science of great sages is as a great heap of a few grains, but the science of the simple is a small heap of numberless grains, because neither presumption nor curiosity nor over-subtlety are added to the heap of simple men.’ ‘And what is the work of presumption and curiosity?’ The Lover replied: ‘Vanity is the mother of curiosity, and pride is the mother of presumption, and therefore is their work the work of vanity and pride. And the enemies of my Beloved are known by presumption and curiosity, even as love for Him is acquired by simplicity.’