The last two signs, which conclude the inscription, are phonetic. The first is an N, the second I do not know. But they are an abbreviation of a larger group, which M. Champollion considers as terminating every funeral inscription.

The last observation I shall make, is, that in this legend we have, as usual, a mixture of figurative, symbolical, and phonetic characters, employed indiscriminately.

M. Champollion has shewn that this Ramses Mei-amoun was the fifteenth king of the eighteenth dynasty, which was called diospolitan, because the kings who belonged to this dynasty were of a Theban family, and in the neighbourhood of that city they had their sepulchres. To him we must ascribe the building of the great palace of Medineh-tabou; and, in fact, the name of this prince is engraved on every part of this superb edifice; just as the names of Ptolemy Philometor, and of Evergetes II., are found all over the temple of Ombos, the foundation of which, according to the Greek historians, is due to these two princes of the Lagid dynasty.

Perhaps, by way of a digression, I may be allowed to observe a great similarity of significations of the word Tabou, in the Egyptian language, and in the dialect used by the inhabitants of several islands in the Pacific ocean. In both these languages this word means sacred, no matter whether sacred to the living or to the dead. You remember the account which Captain Cook gives. For

a long time the natives would not allow him to enter a place enclosed by a kind of paling; and for a long time the English commodore was not able to find out the reason of this prohibition. Whenever he made an attempt to enter the place, he was told he could not, because it was tabou, or taboued; and it was after he became acquainted with their language and their customs, that he found out that the word tabou signified sacred, and that the place was so called because it contained their dead.

Indeed, if we were to follow the analogy which navigators and travellers have found in the language and customs of many of the most distant nations both in the old and the new continent, and especially among the savages of the Pacific Ocean, we should be surprised at the great similarity which exists in the customs and languages of both the one and the other, and which evidently proves a common origin, a common descent, and a common stock. It is from considerations like these that Carli, who had well studied the origin of languages, and the annals of mankind, asserted that the Egyptians had peopled America. This is not the place, nor indeed the time, for me to develope the ingenious system of the learned antiquarian, nor the mode by which the descendants of Noah have spread far and wide throughout the world. This subject, so interesting in itself and in its consequences, requires to be treated in a regular, not in a cursory way: and perhaps at a future time I

may endeavour to offer to your consideration facts which will excite your curiosity, and command your attention. "La terre," says Fontenelle, "est une vieille coquette, elle tache en vain avec sa parure de cacher les rides de son visage."

But to return to our inscriptions.

However high may appear the antiquity of the monument belonging to Ramesses Mei-amoun, Champollion has discovered others referring to Pharaohs whose reigns belong to a still more ancient period. From amongst them we may record the monument raised to Amenophis II., whose colossus, under the name of Memnon, excited for a long time the curiosity of the Greeks and of the Romans. From the inscriptions engraved on this colossus, as well as on the ruins of the Memnonium, it appears that this prince was the founder of the magnificent temple and palace at Louqsor; by his victories, he extended the limits of his empire for more than one hundred leagues beyond the island of Philæ, which was the farthest boundary of ancient Egypt; and at Soleb, as high as the twentieth degree, north latitude, his name and exploits are still to be seen engraved on those magnificent ruins, surrounded by images of several nations in a state of captivity.

This Pharaoh, with two more of his predecessors, whose legends are given by Champollion, belong to the early princes of the eighteenth dynasty, the most brilliant period of the Egyptian monarchy, preceding, as he says, the Christian æra

by not less than 1800 years; for during, or about, this time, happened the great events recorded by the sacred as well as by profane history; such as the expulsion of the shepherd kings, or Hyk-shos; the restoration of the ancient monarchy; the conquest of many distant nations; the construction of most of the magnificent buildings of Thebes and Nubia; the departure of the Israelites under the guidance of Moses; the emigration into Greece of the Egyptian colonies, headed by Danaus. But, although the learned antiquarian be perfectly correct, in ascribing to this period the passing of all these events, he is most undoubtedly wrong in regard to the mode in which he reckons their chronology, for the antiquity of these monuments mounts to a much earlier period, as I shall prove in a future Lecture.

These historical facts are incontrovertible. They derive their certainty not only from the inscriptions engraved on these monuments, but also from the chronological canon of Manetho, which, very undeservedly, has been looked upon as of doubtful authority by some of the critics; but it seems that the table of Abydos has established the veracity of the Egyptian historian in a manner which was never suspected by these critics.

The ruins of this ancient and formerly splendid city lie on the western coast of the Nile, between the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth degree north latitude, and near the entrance of the great Oasis. Close by are seen other ruins of a royal palace,

formerly the residence of a king of Egypt, named Memnon, or Ismandes, by the Greeks. This name, Ismandes, is supposed, and not without reason, to be a corruption of the Egyptian Osymandias, whom Manetho also calls Sesokhris, one of the sovereigns of the twelfth dynasty, who reigned above 3000 years before Christ; for it is to this remote epoch that the monuments of Abydos reach, if Ismandes, or Osymandias be considered as the founder of that city; an epoch which is by no means incredible, provided we follow the chronology of the Septuagint.

Perhaps I may be allowed to observe, en passant, that the difference between the computation of the Hebrew text, which we now follow, and that of the Septuagint, which we have disregarded, is, according to the most moderate calculation, no less than, 1437 years; a period sufficiently long to account for these events, the antiquity of which may at first startle us, and excite our unbelief.

It might also be mentioned, that we have adopted the Hebrew chronology, since the time of the Reformation. An attempt, indeed, to introduce it had been made long before this period, by the venerable Bede, in the eighth century, but with very little success; for the fact is, that up to the second century of our æra, there was no difference whatever between the reckoning of the Hebrew text, and that of the Septuagint; and even when Luther roused the attention of Europe, the authority of that version, and the unanimous consent