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and among the rest by our countryman Mr. Ameilhon.* As the enchorial writing was supposed to be alphabetic, a collation of this part of the Egyptian inscriptions with the Greek, was commenced first. But the result did not answer the expectation. The learned Silvester de Sacy devoted himself to the examination with some success.t He was able, at last, to read some of the proper names which are numerous in the inscription, and he recomposed, in this way, some portions of the enchorial alphabet. Akerblad of Sweden went much farther; but he mistook in attempting to find the vowels, which are often suppressed in the Egyptian texts. Thus only a few facts were discovered relative to this enchorial system of writing; and the knowledge of the proper hieroglyphic signs did not advance one step. Those who attempted to discover their meaning by means of the Rosetta monument, fell into the old path which their predecessors had followed, or rather they were not able to proceed; and all their efforts to find any sort of agreement between the hieroglyphic inscription and the text of the decree in Greek, ended in conjectures as hazardous, and in systems as inconsistent, as those which sprung from the reckless imagination of Kircher and his disciples. No stronger proof of this is needed, than the simple fact of a belief that the hieroglyphic inscription was entire, as was very nearly the Greek inscription; when it is now known that a considerable portion of the first, as well as its translation in the enchorial writing, were unfortunately destroyed by the mutilation of the monument as above mentioned.

* Éclaircissemens sur l' inscription Grecque du monument trouvé à Rosette. Paris an xi. (1803) in 4to.

Lettre au cit. Chaptal, ministre de l'intérieur etc., au sujet de l'inscription Egyptienne du monument trouvé à Rosette. Paris, an x. (1802) in 8vo.

‡ Lettre sur l'inscription Egyptienne de Rosette. Paris, an x. (1802), in 8vo.

CHAPTER II.

DISCOVERY OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS.

Labors of Champollion. Foreign names upon the Egyptian monuments. Royal cartouches, name of Ptolemy. Obelisk of Philoe, name of Cleopatra. Phonetic alphabet.

HAVING adverted to the fruitless attempts which were long made to penetrate the mystery surrounding the ancient writings of Egypt, we come at length to more fortunate results, and we shall now describe the manner in which one of our countrymen succeeded in tearing away the thick veil, that for ages had covered the most illustrious people of antiquity.

1. The monument of Rosetta was not destined always to deceive the hopes which it had inspired. After having been devoted to the spirit of hypothesis, and having been tortured in a manner wholly inconsistent with the principles of true criticism and of sound judgment, it was for a long time abandoned by learned men. They were discouraged by the numerous difficulties which encompassed their path, and the inscriptions which at first were an object of so much study, were now, so to speak, buried in oblivion.

A young student in the mean time arose, who, prepared by an excellent education, and guided by a noble emulation and rare sagacity, began immediately by means of

facts to reverse all the old doctrines concerning hieroglyphics, and to introduce in the place of the vague theories which had previously obtained, a positive, methodical, and lucid system. Champollion fortunately had been occupied with the different branches of Egyptian history. He had perceived what advantages the Coptic language and literature would furnish, in researches with respect to the systems of writing which were in use among the old Egyptians; and making these almost the sole aim of his literary labors, he had studied them with ardor and perseverance. He had already reaped much benefit from this study in investigating the Géographie Egyptienne of Egypt, as he terms it, and he had delighted the public with a volume containing the first part of his Egypte sous les Pharaons; * a remarkable work, especially when we consider the youth of its author. The fruitlessness of former investigations had not terrified him. He had the boldness to try again, what had so many times been tried before; but he followed a different method, and the Rosetta inscription studied with an unyielding constancy, at last disclosed the track, and revealed to him the secret, of the hieroglyphic writing.

It had been the general belief until now, that the hieroglyphic writing was exclusively ideographic, i. e. figurative or symbolical, and that each of the signs it employed, expressed of itself an idea. This opinion appeared the better founded, because it agreed with the views of those ancient writers who had left a few scraps relative to the subject. Being struck particularly with the circumstance which distinguished one Egyptian method of writing from those to which they were accustomed, these writers always attached less interest to modes of writing which they had in common with other people; and this is the reason, doubt

* Première partie, Geographie. Faris, 1814, 2 vol. in 8vo.

less, why they have never spoken except of the ideographic part of the Egyptian monumental writing. They are entirely silent about any other, nor have they written a single syllable, from which the use of an alphabetic writing in Egypt could be conjectured.* It required deep reflection, then, to attain to the idea of its existence. The observing and penetrating mind of Champollion soon perceived that the ideographic system, in its fullest extent, must necessarily admit of exceptions; since it could not express proper names, which do not always convey an idea that is capable of being expressed, [i. e. are not always significant]; nor especially foreign names, which, being destitute of any relation to a particular spoken language, could not be represented by conventional signs. To supply this insufficiency of the supposed hieroglyphic method, it was indispensably necessary to recur to a system of writing analagous to that in use among other nations. It was thought that there must exist among the Egyptians, characters or phonetic signs, that is, signs which should in some way express the sounds of the spoken language. Having obtained this idea, which could not prove fallacious, Champollion undertook to establish it by a very natural process. He applied it to the hieroglyphic and Greek inscriptions on the stone from Rosetta.

3. In the Greek text of the decree the name of Ptolemy often occurred, and many other proper names which were foreign to the Egyptian language. So in the hieroglyphic inscription, a group of signs were observed to be frequently repeated, which were contained in the ovals or rings called cartels or cartouches. By this last mark of dis

* Clement of Alexandria described, it is true, this part of hieroglyphic writing; but in a manner extremely concise, and which was not understood. It is almost unnecessary to repeat the remark, that his text relative to this important subject, could not be understood in the then state of Egyptian studies.

tinction, as well as by its relative position in the text, the hieroglyphic group appeared to correspond with the name of Ptolemy, Пroleuaios in the Greek inscription. It might then be supposed with very great probability, that the signs clustered in the ring or cartouche, expressed phonetically the name of this prince; * and this conjecture led to the expectation, that in decomposing the group to which such a signification was attributed, some of those first elements of alphabetic writing which were sought, might be found.

Champollion proceeded to analyse the hieroglyphic group which he supposed to designate the name of Ptolemy; and noting each of the signs which composed it, he believed that he recognized signs which were the equivalents of the letters II. T. O. 4. M. H. & Z, which, when united, make the word IITOAMHZ (Ptolmés). It was impossible to mistake the name of Ptolemy (IITolεμaios), from which the first differed only by its termination, and (in a manner common to all writings in the Shemitish languages) by the suppression of one of its medial vowels. (See App. D.)

Champollion had now obtained seven letters, or rather seven signs, of a phonetic alphabet, and his happy success inspired the hope of discovering others with equal facility. This first result however, satisfactory as it was, could not appear to him more than a conjecture; a very probable one indeed, but one which nevertheless belonged to the class of conjectures. Before he advanced any farther in

*Long before the labors of Champollion and of Dr. Young, the Abbe Barthelemy had conjectured that the cartouches contained proper names. (Recueil d' antiquités de Caylus, tom. v. p. 79.) The learned Zoëga had the same idea; "Every where about the Egyptian monuments are seen certain round or elliptical figures, which include (by way of giving them importance) certain compositions of signs, expressing either the proper names of persons, or designating the most sacred formulas." (De origine et usu obeliscorum. p. 445.) He had before expressed the same conjecture (p. 374).

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