212 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



presses the piston of the balancing-cylinder upward, and as each presents very 

 near the same surface to the pressure, it follows that the valve will be balanced 

 and can be reciprocated by an extremely small power. ^ 



The outer ends of the connecting links before mentioned, remain stationary, 

 but as their inner extremities are connected to the equalizing-bar, they, of course, 

 are caused to oscillate in a vertical line, and as each has a similar radius, the 

 balancing piston is devoid of motion. 



VIRGILIAN PROVERBS. 



F. J. MILLER. 



It seems natural to man to delight in axioms, those formulae of thought which 

 bear the stamp of truth upon the surface, and which no one can call in question. 

 And perhaps it is this natural delight which leads us to crystallize into proverbs 

 those other principles which, though not axiomatic, are still so broadly founded 

 in reason and experience as to be generally admitted to be true. 



The pleasure we experience in meeting these proverbs, however disguised 

 they may be in poetical garments, is that of being on familiar ground. We, too, 

 have experienced or observed the same thing, and this common thought at once 

 brings us into intimate relations with our author ; we can strike hands with him 

 and say, " Yes ; I know that." The author who utters for men their own thoughts 

 is the most appreciated, the most popular, the most quoted. The popularity of 

 Virgil may be explained, at least in part, on these grounds. The ardent student 

 often finds with delight that the author for a moment leaves that which is new 

 and strange and greets him in his own toDgue. We cull a few examples out of 

 the riches before us, choosing almost at random. Our poet sings : 



" Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, -auri sacra fames?" 

 and again, — 



" Improbe amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis ? " 

 and our observation daily tells us that the same "fatal thirst for gold," and the 

 same "base passion" drive men to all extremities to-day. 

 The stately utterance of the Trojan hero, — 



"Dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?" 

 has retained its substance, though changed in form, in the English proverb, — 



" All's fair in love and war ; " 

 and we recognize the " courage of despair" in 



"Una salus victis, nuUam sperare salutem." 

 Our English proverbs are often open to the criticism of inelegance and slang. 

 Not so the Virgilian. While the elegant Mantuan comforts the love-lorn swain 

 in this fashion, " Invenies alium, si te hie fastidit, Alexim," — his English cousin, 

 with more force than elegance, will only say: "There are as good fish in the sea 

 as ever yet were caught." 



