Sidney first, and after him Humphrey Gilbert, could only circumscribe the rebellion.
It was the same optimism, with its easy methods of regenerating society and its fatal blindness to the real conditions that circumscribe human life, that was responsible for the wild theories of the French Revolution and many of its consequent excesses.
To circumscribe the influence of the ruling favourites he next suggested the formation of a cabinet council of six or eight ministers, through whom all the business of the state was to be transacted; but Catherine, suspecting in the skilfully presented novelty a subtle attempt to limit her power, rejected it after some hesitation.
The Pythagorean school of philosophers adopted the theory of a spherical earth, but from metaphysical rather than scientific reasons; their convincing argument was that a sphere being the most perfect solid figure was the only one worthy to circumscribe the dwellingplace of man.
