[Editor: This is a chapter from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni. A glossary has been provided to explain various words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to modern readers.]
XCVI.
Est modus in rebus: sunt certi denique fines, quos ultrae,
Citraque nequit consistere rectum.
Have I anything more to say? Oh! yes, mate; a string of the realities of the things of this world.
Some one who had been spouting, stumping, and blathering — known as moral-force “starring” — in urbe et argo, for the benefit of the state prisoners, had for myself personally not humanity enough to attend to a simple request. He could afford to ride “on coachey,” I had to tramp my way to Ballaarat. I wished him to call at my tent on the Eureka, and see that my stretcher was ready for my weary limbs.
Full stop. My right hand shakes like a reed in a storm; my eyes swell from a flood of tears. I can control the bitterness of my heart, and say, “So far shalt thou go;” but I cannot control its ebb and flow: just now is springtide.
If I must again name a noble-hearted German, Carl Wiesenhavern, of the Prince Albert Hotel, who was my good Samaritan, I must also annex the following three documents, because my friends in Rome and Turin may take my wrongs too much to heart!
Source:
Raffaello Carboni. The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting on Quarter-Deck a Rebellion, Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 1962 [facsimile of the 1855 edition], page 121
Editor’s notes:
Est modus in rebus: sunt certi denique fines, quos ultrae. Citraque nequit consistere rectum. = (Latin) “There’s a mean in every thing; and there are certain limits fixed, beyond or short of which virtue cannot subsist”, or “There is a mean in all things; and, moreover, certain limits on either side of which right cannot be found”; from “Satires”, Book 1 (section 1.1, lines 106-107), by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65 BC – 8 BC)
urbe et argo = (Latin) “city and Argos” [presumably a classical reference, but one that has not been located, so it is unclear what Carboni is referring to here, although Argos is a city in Greece, as well as being a region (Argolis) in Greece, and a constellation in the southern hemisphere located between Canis Major and the Southern Cross, named after the hundred-eyed monster Argos (Argus) of Greek mythology; also, Argo was the name of the ship, designed by Argos (Argus), which carried Jason and the Argonauts of Greek legend]
References:
Argos:
“The Eumenides”, Johnson [further details not available], Southern Illinois University (accessed 18 January 2013)
“Jason”, Mythagora: Greek Mythology from The Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant (accessed 18 January 2013)
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition), Merriam-Webster, USA, 2004, page 66 (accessed 18 January 2013)
“Pavo – the Peacock”, Sullacrestadellonda (accessed 18 January 2013)
“Argo”, Wikipedia (accessed 18 January 2013)
“Argos”, Wikipedia (accessed 18 January 2013)
“Argos (dog)”, Wikipedia (accessed 18 January 2013)
Est modus in rebus: sunt certi denique fines, quos ultrae. Citraque nequit consistere rectum.:
Horace [Joseph Davidson, editor]. The Works of Horace: Translated into English Prose, Vol. II, fourth edition, R. Manby, London, 1753, pages 16-17 (accessed 29 December 2012)
Hoyt & Roberts [compilers]. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1922 (accessed 29 December 2012)
“Sermonvm Q. Horati Flacci Liber Primvs”, The Latin Library (accessed 29 December 2012)
The Institute of Australian Culture
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