scriptions engraved on this stone were translated from the same original; and though it was impossible to ascertain which of them was the original, yet it seemed evident that two, at least, were but a translation of the third. As the demotic characters shewed something like the shape of letters, it was shrewdly suspected that they might have been used as an alphabet. By comparing, therefore, its different parts with each other, and with the Greek, it was observed that the two groups in the fourth and seventeenth lines of the Greek inscription, in which Alexander and Alexandria occur, corresponded with two other groups in the second and the tenth line of the demotic inscription. These two groups, therefore, were considered as representing these two names, and thus not less than seven characters, or letters, were ascertained.

Again, it was observed that a small group of characters occur very often in almost every line. At first it was supposed that this group was either a termination, or some very common particle; and after more words had been identified, it was found to mean the conjunction and.

It was then observed, that the next remarkable collection of characters was repeated twenty-nine or thirty times in the enchorial inscription; and nothing was found to occur so often in the Greek, except the word king, which, with its compounds, is repeated about thirty-seven times.

A fourth assemblage of characters was found

fourteen times in the enchorial inscription, agreeing sufficiently well in frequency with the name of Ptolemy, which occurs eleven times in the Greek, and generally in passages corresponding to those of the enchorial text, in their relative situation; and by a similar comparison the name of Egypt was also identified.

Having thus obtained a sufficient number of common points of subdivision, the next step was to write the Greek text over the enchorial, in such a manner that the passages ascertained should coincide as nearly as possible; taking, however, a proper care to observe, that the lines of the demotic, or enchorial inscription, are written from right to left, while those of the Greek run in a contrary direction, from left to right. At first sight this difficulty seemed very great; but it was conquered by proper attention and practice; because, after some trouble, the division of the several words and phrases plainly indicated the direction in which they were to be read. Thus it was obvious that the intermediate parts of each inscription stood then very near to the corresponding passages of the other.

By means of this process, Mr. Akerblad, M. De Sacy, and Dr. Young, succeeded in decyphering the inscription engraved on the Rosetta stone, in the enchorial or common characters of Egypt; and thus they obtained a sort of alphabet which might aid them in future researches, and which Dr.

F

Young published in the sixth number of the Museum Criticum, in May, 1814, together with the translation of the inscription itself, and a very interesting correspondence which had taken place between him and the above-mentioned distinguished foreigners.

It is not in the nature of human efforts, that the first discovery in any of our attempts after knowledge, should be faultless and complete; and we must, therefore, not be surprised at a few inaccuracies, arising from scanty materials, in this first gigantic attempt at decyphering hieroglyphics. It is true, the opinion that hieroglyphics occasionally represented letters, was by no means new: Clemens and Porphyry, amongst the ancients, had stated this to be the fact, seventeen centuries ago; but still the precious truth had been disregarded by most, if not all, our antiquarians, and no one before Akerblad and Dr. Young ever thought of applying himself to find out the key that might lead him to the greatest desideratum of all, the discovery of this alphabet; although, as I have observed already, this same assertion had been repeated by several modern writers, who had expressly stated that hieroglyphics constituted a real written language, applicable to all pursuits of common, as well as public and scientific life, and particularly by Warburton, Zoëga, and Professor Vater, who, in a note to Mithridates, asserted that the unknown language of the Rosetta stone, and

of the bandages often found with the mummies, was capable of being analysed into an alphabet, consisting of little more than thirty letters.

Things remained in this state for some time, when a curious circumstance shewed to a demonstration, that the demotic alphabet of Akerblad, De Sacy, and Dr. Young, was the true alphabet employed by the old Egyptians. This was nothing else than the discovery of a second stone, formerly existing at Menouf, containing an inscription both in demotic and Greek characters. This stone belonged to M. Drovetti, the French consul at Alexandria; and Dr. Young, who saw it at Leghorn, and very properly considered it as a very important document, the only supplement, in fact, to the pillar of Rosetta then in existence, did all he could to obtain, though in vain, an impression of it. But what the learned Doctor could not get from the illiberal jealousy of M. Drovetti, he got by chance. On his way home, he saw M. Champollion at Paris, who copied for him some parts of a very important papyrus, written in clear enchorial characters; and very soon after, Mr. Grey, on his return from Egypt, left with him a box containing several fine specimens of writing and drawing on papyrus, which Mr. Grey had purchased from an Arab at Thebes, chiefly in hieroglyphics, amongst which were two particularly deserving attention, inasmuch as they contained some Greek characters, in a pretty legible hand.

In examining one of these manuscripts, Dr. Young, to his great astonishment and delight, found that it began with these words, "A copy of an Egyptian writing;" and on proceeding with his examination, it turned out to be a correct translation of the very MS. which M. Champollion had transcribed for him; and both of them, in reality, were nothing less than the copy of the inscription engraved on the stone discovered at Menouf, belonging to M. Drovetti, which Dr. Young had seen at Leghorn.

covery.

The contents of this manuscript are of a nature not less remarkable than its preservation and dis"It relates to the sale," I copy Dr. Young's own words, " not of a house or a field, but of a portion of the collections and offerings made, from time to time, on account, or for the benefit, of a certain number of mummies, of persons described at length in very bad Greek, with their children and all their households." You will find the translation of this curious document in the account which Dr. Young has published about hieroglyphics, printed by Murray, in the year 1823. The description it gives of the different persons is highly amusing, which is, indeed, the character of the whole work.

The result derived from this second comparison of the Egyptian with the Greek characters, was the identification of more than thirty proper names, and, consequently, of several new characters, which were added to the enchorial or demotic alphabet.