This Basil was an extraordinary man.

Basil, the elder, was a stout, well-grown lad, and had never known a day's ill-health; while Hubert, the younger, was thin, delicate, and constantly ailing.

That Basil was a sort of hermit, who lived in the woods and kept two or three cows.

The BASIL is a plant rendered poetical by the genius which has handled it.

St. Basil was a college friend of Gregory Nazianzen and of Julian, later emperor and apostate, when the three studied rhetoric at Athens.