scurely worded, as to have been necessarily unintelligible to readers, whose preconceived notions would have persuaded them they misunderstood his meaning, if ever so perspicuously expressed; so unwilling is the human mind, whether from pride or indolence, to relinquish an opinion. In fact, it is our knowledge of the subject that enables us to understand this long incomprehensible passage. The value of the work of Horus Apollo, M. Champollion appreciates very highly. Indeed it should seem, that we owe to him most of what we know of the import of the symbols.

These scattered lights had, as we have said, been obscured by the mists of prejudice, and no prospect of elucidation had appeared, when Bonaparte invaded Egypt with an army, attended by a corps of savans. But even now it was accident, rather than the labours of the scientific battalion, that supplied modern Europe with a key to the Hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt. In digging the foundations of Fort St Julian, near Rosetta, the block of black basalt, known by the name of the Rosetta Stone, was found. This celebrated monument was transferred, by the triumphs of our arms, to our possession, and safely deposited in the British Museum. It excited so much attention at the time, that its descrip tion here may seem superfluous; but the clearness of our narration of the course pursued respecting it, and of the discoveries to which it has given rise, requires that we should remind our readers of its precise nature. Be it remembered, then, that this invaluable document bore three inscriptions, one in Greek, one in Hieroglyphics, and one in an unknown cha racter. The stone was mutilated; all three inscriptions were manifestly imperfect; and even the Greek was nearly unintelligible. The Antiquarian Society had the three inscriptions carefully copied, and transmitted engraved fac-similes to all the learned societies in Europe. Porson and Heyne, the first Hellenic scholars of the age, translated the Greek inscription. It proved to be a decree of the priesthood in ho nour of one of the Ptolemies; and the last line contained the important information, that the said decree was ordered to be inscribed in Greek, in Hieroglyphics, and in the Enchorial, or Demotic, the common character of the

country. The labour of deciphering thus lightened by a translation of what was to be deciphered, the scientific men of all nations addressed themselves to the task.

The Demotic characters were judged to be alphabetic, and therefore, as the least difficult, were first attempted; but what the language written in these Demotic characters might be, nobody knew. Sylvestre de Sacy first observed a likeness between two groups of characters, answering in place to Alexander and Alexandria, in the Greek. This was the first discovery of any of the letters, and indicated the means of ascertaining others. Upon this foundation the Dane Akerblad, a diplomatist, constructed an alphabet. It was very defective, mainly because he had not suspected that the Egyptians, like the Jews and other Oriental nations, omitted the vowels in writing. Akerblad's alphabet was corrected by our countryman, Dr Young, who sought out in the Demotic inscription other groups of frequent recurrence, counted their repetitions, and assuming them to answer to the words in the Greek, most nearly corresponding in times of recurrence, made out the names of Ptolemy and Egypt, the substantive King, and the conjunction and.

Dr Young then proceeded to write the Greek over the Demotic, so as to bring every unknown portion into immediate contact with its known purport,-an operation of difficulty, inasmuch as the Demotic was written from right to left, instead of from left to right. He accomplished it by using the ascertained words, And, King, Egypt, and Ptolemy, to divide and subdivide the inscription into minute parcels. The work of comparison was thus greatly facilitated; and although still unsuspicious what language he was translating, in 1814, by this process of comparison, he fully deciphered the Demotic inscription.

The correctness of Dr Young's reading was soon afterwards satisfactorily confirmed. A stone bearing_two inscriptions, one in Greek, and one in Demotic characters, was conveyed to Europe by M. Drouetti, the French Consul in Egypt. He indeed refused our ingenious compatriot the use of it, but the disappointment resulting from such illiberality was obviated by a singular coincidence of circumstances. M.

Champollion obligingly procured the Doctor the copy of a Demotic papyrus from the treasures accumulated in Parisian Musées; and an English traveller, about the same time, presented him with a few MSS. he had brought home from Egypt. Of these some were in Greek, and one purported to be a copy of the Greek version of a legal instrument, inscribed in Greek and Demotic upon a stone, evidently M. Drouetti's. M. Champollion's papyrus turned out to be a copy of the Demotic version of the same instrument! The power of reading this papyrus, was irrefragable proof of Dr Young's having rightly interpreted the former Demotic inscription.

Thus further prepared, European learning and industry girded itself to achieve its great adventure, the Hieroglyphic portion of the Rosetta Stone; and it was Dr Young who had the honour of making the first step towards success. He noticed a group of figures inclosed in an oval ring, answering in position to the name of Ptolemy in the two other inscriptions; and thence argued, that such group must be Ptolemy, and that Hierogly phic characters might be used otherwise than symbolically.

It is true, he interpreted some of these characters wrong, mistook letters for syllables, and vowels for use. less marks, misled in the latter point probably, by reasoning from the Demotic, in which the omission of vowels is said to be uniform, whilst in the Hieroglyphic it seems arbitrary. But this was, nevertheless, the first perception of the possible use of Hieroglyphics to express sounds, not ideas; and upon this preliminary discovery is Champollion's brilliant theory grounded. With similar success and similar errors, Dr Young read the name of Berenice, in a legend from a temple at Karnak; and, finally, by comparison of position with the Greek and Demotic, interpreted 77 other characters, or groups of characters; but he did not clearly apprehend their alphabetic nature, and indeed still doubts, we believe, the extent of the phonetic application of Hieroglyphics.

The third lecture turned upon M. Champollion's system of Hieroglyphics; but prior to explaining it, the Marquis stated that the first confirmation which Dr Young's discovery

received was from Mr W. Bankes. This gentleman observed, that a single female figure, an unusual phenomenon in Egyptian sculpture or painting, was frequently repeated in the carving of one particular tomb; and upon the sarcophagus in that tomb he noticed a group of figures in a ring, which he guessed, from the circumstance, to be Cleopatra. In corroboration of which guess, upon an obelisk at Phylæ, said, in a Greek inscription on the base, to have been raised in honour of a Ptolemy and two Cleopatras, he found the name of Ptolemy agreeing with that of the Rosetta Stone, and another group, from its position, necessarily Cleopatra, agreeing with the characters upon the sarcophagus.

Such was the state of Hieroglyphic interpretation, when it was taken up by M. Champollion. The ingenious and judicious Frenchman at once conjectured that the phonetic use of Hieroglyphics was probably not limited to the expression of foreign names, but of general application, and he adopted the notion first established by Quatremere, that the modern Coptic is identical with the language of ancient Egypt. By these ideas he directed his investigations. He began indeed with Greek and Roman names as the easiest-the first word he read was Alexander-and by their help rapidly prosecuted his phonetic discoveries. In the year 1822, he published an Hieroglyphic Alphabet, of 100 characters. This might seem a sufficient number of representative emblems, for sixteen letters, to which some erudite persons limit the Egyptian alphabet, which, by those who most enlarge it, is not computed at more than thirty, including diphthongs and other double letters. Yet, notwithstanding such a superabundance of substitutes for every letter, a superabundance since greatly increased, the same character occasionally stands for two consonants, and some are common to almost, if not quite, all the vowels. This seemingly glaring awkwardness is accounted for by the different dialects prevailing in the three regions of Upper, Middle, and Lower Egypt. The natives of every province being thus enabled to read the inscriptions, each according to his own indigenous pronunciation.

In 1824, M. Champollion published his PRECIS DU SYSTEME HIEROGLYPHIQUE, still our standard work upon the subject. In this he clearly established the distinction drawn by Clemens Alexandrinus, between the Demotic, Hieratic, and Hieroglyphic characters. He interpreted upwards of 700 of the last, many, however, being either figurative or symbolical, and he explained the principle upon which phonetic Hieroglyphics were constructed. It is a principle pretty much analogous to that by which English children are taught their letters, when A is represented and illustrated by an apple-pie, B by a bull, C by a cat, D by a Dog, &c. That is to say, that every depicted object stands for the first letter in its own name. The names supplying the letters, and the words written in them, with the few exceptions known to the reader, are all Coptic, so that a thorough acquaintance with that language should seem to be the only indispensable qualification for the study of phonetic Hieroglyphics.

The objects thus represented for the sake of their initials, are of every possible kind; the human body, and its parts, animals wild and tame, and portions of them, fish, reptiles, insects, fruits, flowers, buildings, furniture, clothes, tools, geometrical figures, &c. &c. One purpose of the immense number of characters thus provided, may have been to give variety to their carved and painted inscriptions, as the artists appear to have very much studied the effect of the grouping of their figures. But another, and more important, certainly was, to allow of such characters being selected upon every occasion, as were symbolically appropriate to the subject upon which they were to be employed. For instance, in the names of sovereigns or heroes, the lion, as emblematic of valour and dignity, always stands for L, and the eagle, for the same reason, for A; the Coptic names of those animals beginning respectively with Land A. The symbolical character thus given to phonetic writing, the Marquis illustrated by the supposition that we, having such an Hieroglyphic alphabet, therewith desired to write London. A leaf, a lamb, or a lion, would equal

ly answer for the L, but we should indisputably choose the lion, as the emblem of England. An oak-tree, which furnishes our ship-timber, would, as certainly, be preferred to an owl for the O, although the difficulty of distinguishing in a mere outline, an oak from an elm, might induce the substitution of an acorn as its representative. A net, the North Star, and the nave of a church, would alike supply N; but we should probably reject the latter, which would be highly suitable in an ecclesiastical state, in favour of the net and the North Star, both in some measure appropriate to a seafaring people; and assuredly no Briton would take a dagger for his D, whilst the deck of a ship supplied the same letter. Thus London would be written or painted by a lion, an oak-tree, or an acorn, the North Star, the deck of a ship, and a net, omitting the second O, as we rarely find all the vowels inserted in a word hieroglyphically written,

But notwithstanding all these discoveries, great difficulties still perplexed the student of Hieroglyphics; one being their arrangement. They are written indifferently from right to left, from left to right, or perpendicularly. Nay, in the same oval ring or shield, half the figures will be placed horizontally, half perpendicularly; nor do they always invariably follow each other in orthographical order. These sudden changes appear to be wholly regulated by some notion of convenient or agreeable grouping; for whenever one figure is particularly long, we find two, or three, as symmetry may require, placed one over another by its side, thus restoring a due equilibrium to the picture, at the small cost of sometimes misplacing a letter or so. As a general rule it has, however, been found, that in MSS. Hieroglyphics are commonly arranged in perpendicular, in painting and sculpture in horizontal order, whilst the question from which hand to begin reading, is usually to be solved by noticing which way the animals look, and beginning from the side towards which they are turned.

Having thus explained the Hieroglyphic alphabet, the 4th lecture treated of the other kinds of Hiero

glyphics. These Marquis Spineto divided into figurative proper, figurative proper abridged, and symbolical. The first differ little from mere picture writing. In this figurative proper, to express such a God's temple, we should find the God himself, dis tinguished by his emblem, commonly an animal sacred to him, and a temple with a line under it; which line being one of the forms of N, stands for the preposition of. The figurative abridged, as its name implies an abridgement of the preceding, is the most common. In it the God would be distinguished, by substituting the head of his favourite animal for his own, a form long mistaken for the actual image of the God; and a ground plan of a house would take the place of the temple, preserving the N for of. In symbolical Hieroglyphics, parts of things are employed to signify the whole, things used in certain operations to signify those operations, and things emblematical to signify that of which they might be emblems. Thus a human head implied wisdom, a lion's head valour, a box with a flame issuing from it-a sort of a censer, we presume an act of adoration. Two hands and arms, each holding a weapon, betokened a battle; detached hands the slain ;-did the Egyptians cut off hands as the Turks do ears, by way of trophies of their massacres ?the sign of a thousand with that of the proper multiplicator, added to these severed hands, showed the number slain in the battle, and similar adjuncts to the figure of a kneeling man, with the line, denoting of, or possession, under him, told how many prisoners the victorious king, whose name was phonetically subjoined, had taken. Some symbols are more obscure, as a twisted serpent for the course of the

stars.

The Egyptians, we are told, deemed the names of Deities too sacred to be pronounced; a notion not peculiar to them. The Jews, as is well known, perhaps from an overstrained interpretation of the third commandment, reverently abstained from speaking the holy name of Jehovah ; and even the Greeks, familiarly as they dealt with their Pantheon in general, apprehend

ed that the utterance of the awful name Demogorgon would produce some inconceivable disaster, if not bring the universe itself about their

ears.

The Egyptians extended this species of silent respect to all their Gods; they frequently wrote divine names differently from the way in which they were spoken, and judged it more pious to designate a Deity by his symbol, than figuratively or phonetically. This symbol was often formed, by attaching the mark of divinity, a sort of hatchet, to the animal dedicated to the God, or to his emblem, whatever that might be.

*

This lecture concluded with some emblems and symbols of Gods, and some details concerning Egyptian opinions and customs naturally connected therewith. But we deem it more convenient, to proceed first to the grammatical forms given in the 5th lecture, that we may put all our ele mentary information together, ere we shew its application. The Marquis might be influenced in his different arrangement, partly by the desire of scattering amusement through every separate lecture, and partly by the impossibility of displaying simulta neously, in the limited space at his command, the numerous Hieroglyphical legends and inscriptions with which he gratified and enlightened his audience. With us, who must compress the substance of six lectures into a few pages, and who can offer but a specimen or two of Hieroglyphics, such considerations weigh not; and we follow the course we judge clearest, without regarding the place as signed by the lecturer to either mythology or Hieroglyphical monument.

Genders were expressed by the sign of r, or of T; pe and te being respectively the masculine and feminine article; and, besides the arbitrary omission and insertion of vowels, initials being often used as abbreviations of words. The T, generally in the form of a semicircle, is attached to names of women, to symbols of Goddesses, and converts the words son and brother, into daughter and sister. The persons and tenses of verbs are formed by adding the requisite personal pronoun or termination to the

infinitive, or rather, perhaps, the root of a verb-we are no Coptic scholars whilst the participle, active or passive, is expressed by placing the same infinitive, or root, before or be hind the person referred to. Thus, Mai Ammon is loving Ammon; Ammon Mai, beloved by Ammon: and both senses are obtained by inserting the word between two names, Same Mai Ammon, meaning beloved by Same loving Ammon. To express the paternal relation, a goose or an egg, both standing for s, with a line, the character 1, spelling the word si, son, is placed between the names of the father and son. If the mother's name is to be added, an м and an s, giving the word mes, produced or born, precedes her name. Names are, of course, always phonetically written. Only those of sovereigns are inclosed in oval rings. Names of private men and women are marked by human figures attached to them; those of Deities by the emblem of divinity.

Our readers are now possessed of the most important of the elementary part of the Hieroglyphic system, as far as it is yet ascertained. We shall next impart some of the results of the application of this elementary know-ledge, in the explanation and description of such deciphered Hieroglyphic monuments as appeared to us most curious amongst those the Marquis exhibited. Our learned foreigner's statements concerning Egyptian religion, opinions, and customs, will con.veniently introduce them.

The religion of Egypt he conceives to have been originally, always probably in the secret doctrines of the priests, a pure theism; and its apparent mythology merely an allegorical illustration of the qualities of the Supreme Being, described as emanations from him. Such an allegory would, of course, be speedily misconceived by the ignorant vulgar, or more properly, by the ignorant laity, in as much as the kings seem, according to our present means of judging, to have been included in that description.

The less spiritual and more sensuous Greeks,-to use a term invented by metaphysicians to express the power of the senses, without awakening the gross ideas attached to the word sensual-converted these allegorical essences into real, individual, and some what human, Gods and Goddesses. Indeed, they seem to have borrowed their whole mythology from the Egyp➡ tians, through Orpheus, who is supposed to have been initiated into the most recondite mysteries of the Hierophants. Ammon, the Demiourgos, or Creator, was the chief Deity; and with his emanations, Knouph, or Kneph, the principle of paternity, and the Goddess Neith, the principle of maternity, constituted a species* of Trinity. We cannot help pausing to remark, but without pretending to account for the circumstance, that we hardly know of any mythology in the least degree spiritualized or mystical, which does not offer a Trinity.

To return. To Ammon, the principal temples in Thebes were dedicated; the city itself was called his dwelling; and the ram being his favourite or sacred animal, he is symbolically represented by a ram with a golden circle, or by an obelisk. The goddess Neith presided over wisdom and military tactics. Upon her temple or shrine were inscribed, we are told, the noted words, "I am all that was, that is, that ever will be-No mortal ever raised my veil." Phtha was the inventor of philosophy, and a generally beneficent spirit, whence his symbol was very properly the Nilometer; a philosophic invention, and the measure of that inundation, upon which the welfare, almost the existence, of Egypt depended. Phra, or Re, was the god of the sun. To him was dedicated the city of On, of the Bible, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, who translated all names. His symbol is the sun's disk, with or without a serpent. He was said to have been the second king of Egypt, whence all sovereigns of Egypt entitled themselves sons of the Sun. Saté, his daughter, was a kind of female