ld do. I have brought all these soldiers, these
mullahs, these learned men, these old men, these beautiful maidens
bearing treasures, and yet I cannot bring thee back. It depends not on
me, but on Him before Whom all power is powerless. May the mercy of the
Lord be multiplied upon thee for another year.' Having thus spoken, they
return by the way they came.'"

Hasan Basri, having heard this, felt stirred to the depths of his heart.
Leaving Roum, he retired to Basra, where he took an oath that he would
not smile again till he knew what his eternal destiny would be. He
practised the severest asceticism, and many came to hear him preach.

Hasan Basri had a disciple who was in the habit of casting himself on
the ground and uttering groans when he heard the Koran recited. "If thou
art able to restrain these groans," said he, "they will prove like a
destructive fire to thee; but if they are really beyond thy power to
control, I declare that I am six stages behind thee in the way of piety.
Such groanings," he added, "are generally the work of Satan."

One day Hasan Basri was preaching when Hejaj ben Yusuf, the bloodthirsty
and formidable governor of Irak, accompanied by a great number of his
retinue with drawn swords, entered the mosque. A person of distinction
in the audience said, "We must watch to-day whether Hasan will be
embarrassed by the presence of Hejaj." When the latter had taken his
place, Hasan Basri, without paying the least attention to him, so far
from shortening his discourse, prolonged it. When it was finished, the
person who was watching him exclaimed, "Bravo, Hasan!" When he came down
from the pulpit, Hejaj came forward, and, taking him by the hand, said,
addressing the people, "If you wish to see him whom the Lord has
distinguished among you, come and look on Hasan Basri."

Hasan had in his heart such a fear of the Lord that, like a man seated
near an executioner, he was always in a state of apprehension. Seeing
one day a man who wept, he asked him what was the matter. "To-day,"
answered the man, "I heard a preacher say that there were a great many
among the Moslems who, by reason of their sins would remain several
years in hell, and then be taken out." "May God grant," cried Hasan,
"that I be one of those who come out of hell at last; may I be even as
that man, who, as the prophet of God said, will come out eighty-four
years after all the rest."

One night he was overheard weeping and groaning in his h