Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Circle
As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes
The sinking stone at first a circle makes;
The trembling surface by the motion stirr’d,
Spreads in a second circle, then a third;
Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance,
Fill all the watery plain, and to the margin dance.
Pope.—Temple of Fame, Line 436.
The small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The circle mov’d, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. IV. Line 364.
Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.
Shakespeare.—King Henry VI., Part I. Act I. Scene 2. (La Pucelle to Charles the Dauphin.)
Circles in water as they wider flow
The less conspicuous in their progress grow,
And when at last they trench upon the shore,
Distinction ceases and they’re view’d no more.
Crabbe.—The Borough, Letter 3.