The Progress and Prospects of Oriental Discovery [pp. 476-493]

1875.] ORIENTAL DISCOVERY. 477
basalt, marked with various characters. Upon inspection, it
was found that while the uppermost of three inscnptions~was
in hieroglyphics, and the second in what came to be known as
demotic, the lower one was in the Greek text. The inscriptions were engraved and circulated among the iltcrati of
Europe. The Greek was easily read. It was a record of the
honors bestowed by the Egyptian priesthood at Memphis, on
the Pharaohs, in the person of Ptolemy Epiphanes. It also
contained the statement, that it had been decreed that the
inscription should be engraved on a stone tablet in sacred
(hieroglyphical), demotic (enchorial), and Greek characters.
Here, undoubtedly, were three forms of the same inscription. It remained to interpret the unknown by the known.
In 1802, De Sacy was confident that he had identified in the
demotic writing the names of Ptolemy and two others. Meanwhile, his pupil, Quatremere, was engaged in the task of proving that the Coptic was in substance the language of ancient
Egypt. Acquiring the Coptic language, Dr. Young, after prolonged study, was able, in 1814, to offer his conjectural translation. Notwithstanding some errors, and his failure to discover the real character of the hieroglyphics, or the fact that
several different signs were used to express the same sound, he
prepared the way for the triumph of Champollion. The latter, born in 1790, was but a boy when the results of the French
expedition became known in Europe. He regarded with admiring wonder the mysterious symbols which thenceforth absorbed his inquiring mind. By the aid of an inscription on an
obelisk from Phil~, and his own patient sagacity, he succeeded
in determining several alphabetic sounds of the hieroglyphic,
which it was now ascertained was the original form of the language, and in 1824, he gave the world his magnificent work,
"Prccis du Syst~me Hierogi;yphique." Dying at the early age of
42, he yet left also behind him a hieroglyphical dictionary and
an Egyptian grammar.
Rosellini and Salvolini, in turn gave promise of pushing
forward their discoveries beyond the point reached by Champollion. But, like him, they were cut off by a premature
death. Other laborers, however, were entering the field. In
1837, M. Lepsius published his letter to Rossellini, and gave a
new impulse in Germany to the study of Egyptian arch~ology.