away upon speculative and imaginary systems, which led them far away from truth.

There was, indeed, one work, written by Horapollo, under the title of " Hieroglyphica," which is pretended to have been translated from Egyptian into Greek by a certain Philip. Although the learned do not agree about the identity and age of this Philip, yet the work might have been of use, if it really contained the true principles of the graphic system of the Egyptians, and the meaning of hieroglyphics; but this is not the case, for, generally speaking, this work of Horapollo is of a childish and doubtful nature, noticing only a few of the symbolical hieroglyphics, and these not always correct, and mostly belonging to another sort of writing, used, perhaps, in the mysteries of Isis, of which the priests alone had the key.

Things were in this state, and our knowledge of hieroglyphics amounted literally to nothing, when the French government sent an expedition into Egypt, most liberally provided with a select body of antiquarians and architects, surveyors, naturalists, and draughtsmen, to discover, copy, and carry away all that was fitted to explain the scientific and literary knowledge of that country. On their return they published a splendid account of their labours, in which all the perfection and elegance which can possibly belong to printing and engraving have been exhibited, and nothing can exceed the fidelity and exactness with which the several MSS. and inscriptions have been represented.

Amidst the several monuments which they discovered, in digging for the foundation of fort St. Julian, near Rosetta, they found a huge broken stone of a black colour, which was destined to produce a material revolution in our knowledge of hieroglyphics, and dissipate the dark mist which hitherto had enveloped this important department of antiquity. This stone, which by the gallantry of our army now decorates the British museum, contains an inscription, in three several languages, or sets of characters, one in Greek, another in hieroglyphics, and the third in a sort of running hand, called enchorial characters, that is, the common characters of the country. This stone is mutilated in several places. The top part of the hieroglyphical inscription is altogether wanting. The beginning of the second, and the end of the third are also mutilated. But enough was left to give us a proper idea of its purport and con

tents.

It was soon ascertained that this stone was too valuable a monument to be laid aside; and our Antiquarian Society, fully aware of its importance, had it immediately engraved, and generally circulated. The precious relic soon attracted the attention of the greatest scholars of Europe, of a Porson and a Heyne, in regard to the Greek; and of M. Silvestre de Sacy, Ackerblad, Dr. Young, and Champollion, in regard to the hieroglyphical, and the enchorial, or demotic.

As it was natural to suppose, the intermedial

text of this inscription, which in the Greek is called enchoria grammata, or letters of the country, was, after the Greek, that which attracted the attention of scholars, and consequently the first that furnished any precise notions concerning the system adopted by the Egyptians in writing; because the hieroglyphics presented greater difficulties, and the Greek was sufficiently understood, both in England and abroad, to render this part at least of the investigation comparatively insignificant.

M. Silvestre de Sacy seems to have been the first to discover, in the demotic or enchorial text, the groups which represented different proper names, such as Ptolemy, and Alexander, and find out that the different signs in these groups were letters.

Mr. Akerblad, a Danish gentleman, and the Swedish resident at Rome, went a little further. He recognised and separated most of these alphabetical elements from the proper names, but deduced his conclusions from the preamble of the decree, which consists in a great measure of foreign proper names; and believing that this part of the inscription was throughout alphabetical, he never suspected the suppression of the intermediate vowels, according to the custom of most of the Orientals, and even of the Hebrews, and thought that every word was spelt most fully and accurately, without any omission whatever. For this reason, when Mr. Akerblad applied his alpha

bet to decypher the rest of the inscription, he could make nothing of it, especially as throughout the inscription there is no intermediate space left between two words; but the letters, or characters, follow one another as closely, as if they made one single word; a practice which prevails also in all the MSS. The first important step, however, was made; an alphabet, or something like an alphabet, had been published; and it had been ascertained, that if not always, at least occasionally, the Egyptians employed hieroglyphics as letters, or at least had a kind of alphabet, the letters of which were not much dissimilar from those of the Hebrews. But still the real translation of the demotic, or enchorial text of the Rosetta stone was wanting.

It might have been expected, after the partial success obtained by Mr. Akerblad, that the antiquaries, the chronologists, and the scholars of all nations would have united heart and hand in a common effort to conquer all the difficulties which still presented themselves, to get at the solution of the grand problem, which was still to be solved concerning the antiquities of Egypt. But it seems that for some time the labours of Akerblad remained, if not unnoticed, at least without producing the effect which might have been expected, till the year 1814, when Dr. Young published, in the Archælogia, an improvement on the alphabet of Akerblad, and a translation of the Egyptian inscription placed by the side of the Greek, but distinguishing the contents of the different lines

with as much precision as his materials had enabled him to obtain. It was then ascertained that these inscriptions contained a decree of the Egyptian priests, solemnly assembled in the temple, who inscribe on this stone, as a public expression of their gratitude, all the events of the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, his liberality to the temples, and to the gods; his success against his rebellious subjects, his clemency towards some of the traitors, his measures against the fatal consequences of the excessive inundations of the Nile, his care to remedy the damage which had already taken place, and his munificence towards the college of the priests, by remitting the arrears of several years' payment of taxes owed to the treasury.

As the language in which this account is given is rather curious, I will read the introduction, and give you an account of this decree, to enable you to form an idea of the style of writing in use at that time, and of the extraordinary titles assumed by the rulers of Egypt. They are not unlike those which, even at this moment, are used by the Turks, the Persians, the Chinese, in short, by all the Orientals.

"In the ninth year, on the fourth day of Xanthicus, the eighteenth of the Egyptian month Mechir, of the young king who received the government of the country from his father, lord of the asp-bearing diadems, illustrious in glory, who has established Egypt; the just, the beneficent, the pious towards the gods; victorious over his ene