owner on bread before it was sent to the oven. Thus on a loaf still preserved is legible, "Siligo C. Glanii," this is Caius Glanius' loaf. Many of their seals were formed in like manner of an oblong piece of metal, stamped with the letters of the motto; instruments very similar to those used in England for marking linen. Thus possessed of types and of ink, how little were the Romans removed from the discovery of the art and advantages of printing! What speculations instantly suggest themselves on the probable consequences of such an event! Whether, on account of the number of copies that would have been struck off, we should not have received all the authors of a classical date entire? ther the dark ages, properly so called, would have existed at all? Whether the learning which the clergy monopolised, and the exclusive possession of which was the parent of so much priestcraft and so many abuses, Whe would not have been diffused throughout society at large, and have rendered mankind incapable of being made the dupes of such artifice? Whether the human intellect, under the operation of such favourable excitements, and the constant impulse of information accumulated through a succession of ages, would not by this time have arrived at a degree of perfection, of which we can have no idea? Amongst the many sources of pleasure which a visit to Italy affords, I know not that any is more prolific than the opportunity it offers of thus examining more closely the ancient state of society in that country, and of introducing ourselves into the domestic circle of a race of people, whom the lapse of time and the glories of history have so splendidly consecrated; almost persuading us, against our better judgment, that such men could not have thought, and acted, and spoke, like the beings of this nether world, amongst whom our lot has been cast. By a nearer acquaintance however with them, the spell is broken; and the more that acquaintance is improved, the more, I am convinced, shall we find that they resembled their present descendants. 241 CHAPTER XIV. ON THE ORDINARY HABITS, FOOD, AND DRESS, OF THE ITALIANS AND SICILIANS. WHEN we call to mind the usual variations of fashion in all those circumstances, the consideration of which forms the subject of this chapter, we shall not wonder that so few, but rather that so many vestiges of ancient practices should still remain; particularly as some of them have no relation to climate, or to such natural causes as may be thought to have an uniform operation upon national character; and as all of them have withstood frequent shocks from the successive irruptions of transalpine strangers. The first meal of the Romans was the prandium, for the jentaculum seems as little to have deserved that name as the Ꭱ cup of caffè nero,' which serves for the breakfast of the modern Italians. This repast was taken at mid-day; and, therefore, precisely accords both in time and denomination with the present 'pranzo.' To dinner succeeded one or two hours' repose. Thus we read in Suetonius that Augustus was used to lie down in his clothes and shoes for a short time after having taken his refreshment at noon. (Aug. 78.) Pliny the younger relates the same thing of his uncle. (Epist. iii. 5.) Indeed, so universal was such an indulgence, that the streets of Rome were quite deserted at mid-day. Accordingly, when Catineus Labeo, a tribune, made an attack upon Q. Metellus, with a view of dragging him to the Tarpeian rock, and there inflicting summary punishment upon him, in revenge for an insult which he had offered him, this was the season purposely selected for so flagrant an outrage, because the forum was then empty. (Plin. N. H. vii. 44.) For |