so was due
to his aspiration to the hand of Leonora d'Este, sister of the duke of
Ferrara. Tasso was a famous Italian poet of the seventeenth century.]

[Footnote 677: Richard III. An English king, the last of the
Plantagenet line, the hero--or villain--of Shakespeare's historical
play, Richard III.]

[Footnote 678: Bifold. Give a simpler word that means the same.]

[Footnote 679: Caesar. Why is Caesar the great Roman ruler, given as a
type of greatness?]

[Footnote 680: Job. Why is Job, the hero of the Old Testament book of
the same name, given as a type of misery?]

[Footnote 681: Poor Richard. _Poor Richard's Almanac_,
published (1732-1757) by Benjamin Franklin was a collection of maxims
inculcating prudence and thrift. These were given as the sayings of
"Poor Richard."]

[Footnote 682: State Street. A street in Boston, Massachusetts, noted
as a financial center.]

[Footnote 683: Stick in a tree between whiles, etc. "Jock, when ye hae
naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be
growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping."--Scott's _Heart of Midlothian_.
It is said that these were the words of a dying Scotchman to his son.]

[Footnote 684: Minor virtues. Emerson suggests that punctuality and
regard for a promise are two of these. Can you name others?]

[Footnote 685: The Latin proverb says, etc. This is quoted from
Tacitus, the famous Roman historian.]

[Footnote 686: If he set out to contend, etc. In contention,
Emerson holds, the best men would lose their characteristic virtues,
--the fearless apostle Paul, his devotion to truth; the gentle
disciple John, his loving charity.]

[Footnote 687: Though your views are in straight antagonism, &c. This
was Emerson's own method, and by it he won a courteous hearing from
those to whom his views were most objectionable.]

[Footnote 688: Consuetudes. Give a simpler word that has the same
meaning.]

[Footnote 689: Begin where we will, etc. Explain what Emerson means by
this expression.]

CIRCLES

[Footnote 690: This essay first appeared in the first series of
_Essays_, published in 1841. Unlike most of the other essays in the
volume, no earlier form of it exists, and it was probably not
delivered first as a lecture.

Dr. Richard Garnett says in his _Life of Emerson_: "The object of this
fine essay quaintly entitled _Circles_ is to reconcile this rigidity
of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation
illustrates one prope