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The inconvenience of the numerical system of theRomans, for the purposes of arithmetical and mathematicalcalculations, is too evident to need any remark, except thatthis inconvenience and unfitness may most likely have beenone of the causes which impeded them in their progressin the exact sciences.
Why, at the present day, our eye is embarrassed by theadditions and substructions necessary to read the dates andnumbers which silly pedantry inscribes upon our monu-ments, coins, and even books, in the long-winded Romanform, I am at a loss to conceive. At Rome , we are an-noyed at every step by having to spell the dates on pedes-tals, inscriptions, and buildings of every kind and age, allin Roman numerals. This is bad and absurd enough atRome , but in England quite ridiculous. The nuisance isextended even to the title-pages of our books ; only let uscompare the coming year 1837, in Arabic cypher, with theRoman numerals MDCCCXXXVII.
It was my father’s desire that I should be initiated into theart and mystery of banking and book-keeping affairs. Myuncle, therefore, caused me to pass the day in the counting-house of the noted banker Torlonia, who had recently pur-chased the estate which conveyed the title of “ Duke ofBracciano.” Torlonia was related to our family, havingrecently taken for second wife, the daughter of CandidaLepri, a first cousin to my father. He treated mewith great kindness and cordiality: but the occupation ofletter-copying and entry-making, could not feel otherwise tome than an irksome drowsy task. This did not escape theobservation of the acute Torlonia, who conceived that Icould be employed in a way at once more useful to himself,and agreeable to me.
A great many English and other foreign travellers ofdistinction were sojourning at Rome . Most of them were