'Etienne de la Boece' gets its title (with Emersonian variations) from the name of one of Montaigne's most intimate friends,--Estienne de la Boetie. Montaigne tells us about him in Chapter xxvii of his Essays, affirming that he would have accomplished miracles, had he lived. He died when only thirty-three at Bordeaux (1563). His scholarship was solid, his translations from the Greek excellent. He was so eager to read Greek that he copied whole volumes with his own hand. A French critic says, "Les qualites qui brillaient en lui imprimaient a toute sa personne un cachet distingue et un charme severe." Yet he seems to have been something of an imitator of his great friend; and it is in this aspect of his life that Emerson regards him, using him, perhaps somewhat unjustly to his powers and developing genius, as the type of a too imitative disciple:-- "I serve you not, if you I follow, Shadowlike, o'er hill and hollow; * * * * Vainly valiant, you have missed The manhood that should yours resist." Probably most Americans, if asked to explain the relevancy of the title of Emerson's poem 'Guy,' would be unable to answer offhand. The verses celebrate the lucky man:-- "The common waters fell As costly wine into his well. The zephyr in his garden rolled From plum-trees vegetable gold. Stream could not so perversely wind But corn of Guy's was there to grind."