nurse,-T, for top,-B, for bird,—G, for garden; which is, in fact, but a repetition of the method first invented by the Egyptians, for the formation of their alphabet. As a general rule, it may, therefore, be said, that whenever we meet with a new phonetic hieroglyphic, the import of which is unknown, we have but to search for the name by which the figure was called, and in ninety-nine times out of an hundred we shall find that the first letter or sound with which this name begins is the import of the character. This, in point of fact, is something like the rule followed by the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac alphabets; in which languages each letter stands for a name, expressing a particular substance, or a particular object; and that the very first letter, be it a vowel, be it a consonant, with which this name began, had and preserved the very same sound which it had in its own respective alphabet. One great difference, however, exists between them. In the Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldaic alphabets, we find only one sign for each letter, and this sign invariable; but in the Egyptian alphabet there are many hieroglyphics, or images, to represent and express the same letter, which images they used, now the one and now the other, always selecting the character which had some correspondence, some relation, some analogy, with the idea, with the object, or with the person, they wished to record, or to express.

Another remarkable circumstance, which deserves our attention in considering phonetic hiero

glyphics, is, the number of the letters they are intended to represent. These letters are not less than twenty-nine, though I have marked only twenty-three of them, mixing two or three together, in order to simplify the system, by expressing them in our own Roman characters. Now, twentynine letters must appear much too many to be the number that was originally invented. It seems but reasonable to suppose, that the first elements of the alphabet must have been very few, and their multiplication the effect of future improvement and discoveries. And, therefore, as it is pretended, and indeed proved, that the Egyptians employed hieroglyphics phonetically, from time immemorial, during the earliest Pharaohs, it has been asked, what was the original number of letters which constituted the Egyptian alphabet at that time?

On this point antiquarians are much divided. Some pretend that their number was twenty-five, and this was the opinion of Plutarch; others that they did not exceed twenty; and others, with much more reason, assert that they scarcely reached sixteen.

The Abbé Valperga, in his Rudimentum Literaturæ Copticæ, published at Parma, in 1783, gives an alphabet containing not less than thirty letters, in which he reckons two different g's, two different v's, three different h's, five double letters, and amongst them not less than three different sounds given to sc.

But from this extensive number, and from the

circumstance that the first twenty-four letters of his alphabet, are precisely the same with those which we find employed by the Greeks during the latter period of their empire, I am inclined to believe that this great number of sounds, or letters, was imported from Greece into Egypt, after the time of Alexander, when we find Greek names written in hieroglyphical characters. Originally, I have no doubt that the Egyptian alphabet contained very few letters; and as Cadmus carried into Greece only sixteen letters, (for the Grecian alphabet had originally only sixteen,) it seems evident that these sixteen letters formed at the time the whole alphabet then known among the Phoenicians and the Egyptians.

The last circumstance to which I must call your attention, in regard to hieroglyphics, is their disposition when employed phonetically as letters. Sometimes you see them placed perpendicularly, as in these cartouches, Table 1, fig. 3 and 8, containing the names of Ptolemy, fig. 3, and Domitian, fig. 8; and when the legend is of a certain length, these perpendicular columns follow each other regularly from right to left, Table 3, fig. 2; at other times they are placed horizontally, as in these groups, Table 1, fig. 1 and 2, representing the names of Berenice and Ptolemy. But the most remarkable circumstance is, that whether perpendicularly, or horizontally placed, they do not follow one another as our letters do, but they often are grouped together, so as to partake of both these dispositions, and this happens whenever any character exceeds in length or

in height the preceding and the following ones. Thus, for instance, in this group, which represents the name of Ptolemy, [Table 1. fig. 2.] the square and the half-circle, as well as the lion and the three sides of a parallelogram, are placed perpendicularly, whilst the whole inscription runs horizontally. Again, in this other group, [fig. 7.] which marks the name of Antinous, the legend runs perpendicularly, and yet some of the characters are situated horizontally. The same must be said of this third cartouche, [fig. 8.] containing the name of Domitian. The inscription runs perpendicularly, and yet several of the characters lie horizontally; but in all of them there seems to be observed one invariable rule,-that of never allowing the characters to exceed the line, both in height and in length. This is sometimes puzzling; and this difficulty is rather increased to those who are not much conversant with the reading of hieroglyphics, for it is observable, that in horizontal, as well as in perpendicular inscriptions, the characters, and the columns, sometimes run from right to left, and at other times from left to right.

Thus, in writing hieroglyphics, the signs or figures may be placed in four different ways, and often are found so to exist on the same monument. They are either in perpendicular lines, going from left to right, or from right to left,—or in horizontal lines, following the same rule of going now from left to right, now from right to left. And again, as I have already mentioned, the grouping of cha

H

racters is often inconsistent with the direction of the lines, the one being horizontal, when the other is perpendicular, or vice versa.

Two rules, however, may be given to determine which way any inscription, or any manuscript, is to be read; the first is, that in hieroglyphical manuscripts the characters are mostly placed in perpendicular lines; but in basso relievos and paintings, especially when they refer to persons or individuals, the signs are situated horizontally. The second rule, equally general and equally useful, is, that any inscription, any manuscript, any legend in short, is to be read from the side towards which are turned the heads of the animals, or the angular edges of the characters. Thus, a line of hieroglyphics is like a regular procession, in which all the images of the several objects follow the march of the initial sign; and it is probably to point out this direction, that almost all the figures of men and beasts, whether birds, reptiles, insects, or quadrupeds, have been designed in profile.

These are the peculiarities which I thought proper to offer to your consideration, in regard to the nature and disposition of phonetic hieroglyphics, that is, of hieroglyphics used as letters. It remains now to prove, that this alphabet suits all the periods of the Egyptian empire, and that by its means we may read not only the legends of the Latin and Grecian epochs, but also those of the Persian and the Pharaonic. You perhaps remember, that the whole period of the Egyptian monarchy is divided