f^^B ARKKT. I'^y OCTOBER, 1842. NEW BOOKS J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. I. THE THIRD EDITION OF A TREATISE on the CHURCH of CHRIST. Designed chiefly for the Use of Students in Theology. By the Rev. WILLIAM PALMER, M.A. Of Worcester College, Oxford; Author of " Origines Liturgicae." In 2 vols. 8vo. 1/. Is. {Notv ready.) II. MY BEE BOOK. By the Rev. W. C. COTTON, M.A. Student of Christ Church, Oxon.; and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of New Zealand. Small ,8vo. [With 7iumerous Engravings on Wood.) 12s. Also, hy the Same Author {price 6d. each), A Series of Short and Simple Letters to Cottagers. (With Wood Cuts.) 1. The Village.— 2. The Village School. Part 1. (To Boys and Girls who go to School.) — 3. The Village School. Part II. (To Parents of School Children.)— 4. The Village School. Part III. (To School Masters and School Mistresses.) — 5. Mary Thompson's Cottage Walls. (Just published.) III. The KINGDOM of CHRIST; or HINTS on the CATHOLIC CHURCH. By the Rev. F. D. MAURICE, M.A. Chaplain to Guy's Hospital ; Author of " Lectures on National Education." Second Edition. In 2 vols, post 8vo. 1/. Is. IV. THOUGHTS on the STUDY of the GOSPELS. Being an Introduction to a Series of Volumes of COMMENTARY on the GOSPELS. By the Rev. ISAAC WILLIAMS, B.D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. In small 8vo. (In afeio days.) 2 BOOKS PUBLISHED V. SIGHTS nml THOUGHTS in FORFIGN CHURCHES and among FOUKIGN PEOPLES. Book I. Paris and Avignon.— II. Cisalpine Gaul. — III. The Adriatic and iEgean. By the Rev. FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A. Fellow of University College, Oxford; Author of « The Cherwell Water-Lily and other Poems." In Svo. 16s. vr. The HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION and CHURCH during tiie three first Centuries. By Dr. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Containing the History of the Persecutions of Christians, Church Government, and Christian Life and Worship. Translated from the German, by HENRY JOHN ROSE, B.D. Rector of Houghton Conquest, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Second Edition. In Svo. Vol.1. lOs. 6d. {Just published.) Lately published, The CONCLUDING VOLUME, containing the History of Christian Sects and Doctrines, and an Account of the Chief Fathers of the Church. Svo. 12s. VII. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to LATIN VERSE COiMPOSITION. Contents: — 1. "Ideas" for Hexameter and Elegiac Verses. 2. Alcaics. 3. Sapphics. 4. The other Horatian Metres. 5. Appendix of Poetical Phraseology, and Hints on Versification. By the Rev. THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In Svo. 5s. 6d. (Just published.) VIII. CHRISTIAN INSTITUTES : A Series of DISCOURSES and TRACTS, selected, arranged systematically, and illustrated with NOTES. By CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D. Rector of Buxted with Uckfield, Sussex, and formerly Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. This work is designed to be subservient to the Religious Portion of a liberal Education for the Upper Classes and the Learned Professions. The Selections are chiefly from the following Writers: Dr. Isaac Barrow — Bishop Jeremy Xaylor — Dr. South — Richard Hooker — Bishop Butler — Richard Baxter — Burke — Bishop Jewel — Lord Clarendon — and F. Mason. Second Edition. In 4 vols. Svo. 3^. 3s. {Now ready.) Lately published, by the same Editor {uniformly printed), ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY; or, Lives of Eminent Men con- nected with the History of Rehgion in England, from the commencement of the Reformation to the Revolution. Selected and illustrated with Notes. Third Edition, enlarged. In 4 vols. Svo. 3/. 3s. BY J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON. 3 IX. The MOTHER'S HELP towards INSTRUCTING her CHILDREN in the Excellencies of the CATECHISM, and of the SERVICES appointed by the Church of England for the more special Occasions whicli mark Christian Life. By the Rev. JOHN JAMES, D. D. Canon of Peterborough, Author of " A Comment on the Collects," " Christian Watchfulness," &c. Dedicated, bj/ permission, to Her Majesty. In 12mo. 8a-. 6d. X. SERMONS on VARIOUS OCCASIONS; with Three Charges to the Clergy of his Diocese. By the Right Rev. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, D.D. LL.D. Bishop of New Jersey, and Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burlington. In 8vo. 18s. XI. The CHURCHMAN'S YEAR: LITURGICAL REMARKS on the SUNDAYS and SAINTS DAYS; the Lives of the Apostles ; with an Explanation of every Epistle, Gospel, and First Lesson, By the Rev. GEORGE FYLER TOWNSEND, M.A. Of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 2 Vols. 8vo. 1/. 4s. (Just published.) XII. NATURE A PARABLE. A POEM. In Seven Books. By the Rev, J. B. MORRIS, M. A. Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Small 8vo. 7s. 6d. {Now readt/.) XIII. The BOOK of PROVERBS explained and illustrated. By the Rev. BENJAMIN ELLIOTT NICHOLLS, M.A. Of Queen's College, Cambridge, Ciu-ate of St. John's, Walthamstow, and Author of a " Help to the Reading of the Bible." In 12mo. 2s. Gd. {Now ready.) XIV. The CHURCH of the FATHERS, By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, B.D. Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College. " Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Second Edition. In small 8vo. 7s. {.hist piiblishid.) 4 BOOKS PUBLISHED XV. A COMMENT on the EPISTLES and GOSPELS for the Sundays of the Year, and the Great Holydays. Intended for Family Reading. By ARTHUR HENRY KENNEY, D.D. Rector of St. Olave's, Southwark. Dedicated, by Permission, to fiis Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2 vols. 12mo. 16s. This Work, which is partly an adaptation to the present time, of the celebrated Commentary by Dean Stanhope, is printed uniformly with Dr. James's " Comment on the Collects." XVI. POEMS. By the Rev. THOMAS WHYTEHEAD, M. A. Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge ; and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of New Zealand. Small 8vo. 3s. XVII. PAROCHIAL SERMONS, Vol. VI. ; for the Spring Quarter, being the Weeks between the First Sunday in Lent and Trinity Sunday. By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, B.D. Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College. In 8vo., price 10s. 6d. Also, the Second Edition of the FIFTH VOLUME (for the Winter Quarter): and New Editions of' the former Volumes. Price 10s. 6d. each. XVIII. THE SECOND EDITION OF The GOSPEL NARRATIVE of the PASSION of OUR LORD HARMONIZED. With Reflections. By the Rev. ISAAC WILLIAMS, B. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. In small 8vo. 8s. XIX. The BISHOPRIC of SOULS. By the Rev. R. W. EVANS, M.A. Author of " Scripture Biography," and " The Rectory of Valehead." Second Edition. In small 8vo. 6s. (Now ready.) XX. THE FIFTH EDITION OF CHRISTMAS STORIES: Containing John Wildgoose the Poacher, the Smuggler ; and Good Nature, or Parish Matters. In small Svo. ( With 7ieic Wood Cuts.) 2s. 6d. BV J. G. F. & .1. KIVINGTON. O XXI. MATERIALS for TRANSLATION into LATIN : selected and arranged by Augustus Grotefend. Translated from the German by the Rev. H. H. ARNOLD, B.A. and edited (with Notes and Excursuses from Grotefend) By the Rev. T. K. ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 8vo. 7s. 6d. XXII. USEFUL KNOWLEDGE; or, a Familiar Account of the various PRODUCTIONS of NATURE. By the Rev. WILLIAM BINGLEY, M.A. F.L.S. Author of " Animal Biography." This Edition has been thoroughly revised, enlarged, and adapted to the pre- sent state of Science, by Mr. DANIEL COOPER, Associate of the Linnaean Society, and late of the British Museum. It forms a Text-Book of Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology, and a Manual of general reference, describing the various Natural Productions employed either as the Food of Man or in the Arts and Manufactures. Sixth Edition. (With loO new Wood Cuts.) In 2 vols. 12mo. 16s. XXIII. The BAPTISTERY : or the Way of Eternal Life. A POEM. By the Author of "THE CATHEDRAL." With Emblematical Engravings. In 8vo. los. XXIV. CATENA AUREA. COMMENTARY on the FOUR GOSPELS, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers by S. THOMAS AQUINAS. Edited by the Rev. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, late Fellow of Oriel College, The Rev. JOHN KEBLE, M.A. Professor of Poetry, late Fellow of Oriel College. The Rev. J. H. NEWMAN, B.D. I'ellow of Oriel College. The Editors refer to the Preface for some account of the nature and charac- teristic excellences of this work, which will be found as useful in the private study of the Gospels, as it is well adapted for family reading, and full of thought for those who are engaged in religious instruction. Vol. I. Part III. {Conclusion of St. Mattheio). 7s. XXV. MEMOIR of The CHISHOLM, late M.P. for Inverness-shire. By the Rev. JAMES S. M. ANDERSON, M. A. Perpetual Curate of St. George's Chapel, Brighton. Second Edition. In small 8vo. os. 6d. {No^v rcudi/.) b BOOKS PUBLISHED XXVI. The ANGELS : a Vision. By the Rev. H. CLARKE, M.A. In 12mo. 2s. 6d. XXVII. THE EIGHTH AND CONCLUDING PART OF The OLD TESTAMENT; With a COMMENTARY arranged in SHORT LECTURES for the Daily Use of Families. By the Rev. CHARLES GIRDLESTONE, M.A. Rector of Alderley, Ciieshire. In announcing tlie completion of this original and comprehensive work, the publishers take the opportunity of stating, that though the arrangement of the Lectures has been adapted to "the purpose of Family Reading, the Exposition will be found equally available in the private study of the Sacred Volume ; being at once explanatory and practical throughout, and combining the result of much research into the labours of others, with the advantage of an uniform and con- sistent interpretation of the whole Bible, by one and the same Expositor, In 8vo., price 9s. The Work, containing the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS, may now be had complete, in 6 vols. 8vo., price 51. 8s., or in 12 Parts, at 9s. each. Any Volume or Part may be had separately. XXVIII. SERMONS on VARIOUS SUBJECTS. By WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. Vicar of Leeds. In 8vo. 10s. 6d. XXIX. LECTURES on the CRITICISM and INTERPRETATION of the BIBLE : with Two Preliminary Lectures on Theological Study and Arrangement, and Two Lectures on the History of Bibhcal Interpretation. By HERBERT MARSH, D.D. Late Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. and Bishop of Peterborough. New Edition {With Index.) In Svo. 12s. Also, by the same Author, {uniformly printed,) LECTURES on the AUTHENTICITY and CREDIBILITY of the NEW TESTAMENT ; and on the AUTHORITY of the OLD TESTAMENT. In Svo. New Edition. 8s. XXX. The ANNUAL REGISTER; Or a View of the HISTORY and POLITICS of the YEAR 1840. In Svo. 16s. BY J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON. 7 XXXI. THE THIRD EDITION OF A MANUAL of the RUDIMENTS of THEOLOGY; containing an Abridpjement of Tomline's Elements; an Analysis of Paley's Evidences; a Sum mar)' of Pearson on the Creed; and a brief Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, chiefly from Burnet; together with other miscellaneous Matters connected with Jewish Rites and Ceremonies, &c. &c. By the Rev. J. B. SMITH, D.D. Of Christ's College, Cambridge; Head Master of Horncastle Grammar School. In 1 2 mo. 8s. 6d. xxxir. The ANGLO-SAXON VERSION of the FOUR GOSPELS. Edited by B. THORPE, F.S A. In small 8vo. 12s. XXXIII. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK ACCIDENCE. By THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon and Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Second Edition. In Svo. 5s. 6d. XXXIV. THE THIRD VOLUME OF PLAIN SERMONS. By CONTRIBUTORS to the " TRACTS FOR THE TIMES." In Svo. 6s. 6(1. Lately published, the First and Second Volumes. Price 6s. 6d. XXXV. A SELECTION from the First Four Volumes of PAROCHIAL SERxMONS. By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, B.D. Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College. In 12mo. 7s. 6d. XXXVI. ECLOG^ OVIDIAN^ ; being the Fifth Part of the Latemisches Elementarbuch, by Professors Jacobs and Doering. Edited by THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Fifth Edition. In 12mo. 2s. 6d. XXXVII. TRUTH without PREJUDICE. In small Svo. 3s. 6d. 8 BOOKS FUBLTSHI-.D BY J. (1. F. .t J. RIVINGTON. XXXVIII. The CONSISTENCY of the DIVINE CONDUCT in REVEALING the DOCTKINES of REDEMPTION: Being the Hulsean Lectures for the Year 1841. To which are added, TWO SERMONS preached before the University of Cambridge. By HENRY ALFORD, M.A. Vicar of Wymeswold, Leicestershire ; and late Fellow of Trinity College. In 8vo. 7s. (Just published.) XXXIX. A NEW EDITION OF THE SECOND VOLUME OF PLAIN PAROCHIAL SERMONS, preached in the Parish Church, Bolton-le-Moors. By the Rev. JAMES SLADE, M.A. Vicar of Bolton, and Prebendary of Chester. In 12tno. 6s. *»* Lately published, Vols. I., III., & IV.,^nVe 6s. each. XL. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to LATIN PROSE COMPOSITION. By THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. This Work, like the " Practical Introduction to Greek Prose Composition" by the same Author, is founded upon the principles of imitation and frequent repetition. It is at once a Syntax, a Vocabulary, and an Exercise Book ; and considerable attention has been paid to the subject of Synonymes. It is used at all, or nearly all, the Public Schools. A Second Part is in preparation. Fourth Edition. In Svo. 6s. 6d. Also, by the same Author, A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION. Fourth Edition. In Svo. 5s. 6d. XLI. LECTURES on the LITURGY of the Church of England, Arranged and slightly abridged of the Commentary of PETER WALDO, Esq. By the Rev. EDWARD BERENS, M.A. Archdeacon of Berks. Third Edition. 12mo. 4s. XLII. THE EIGHTH EDITION OF ANNOTATIONS on the FOUR GOSPELS, and the ACTS of the APOSTLES. Compiled and Abridged for the Use of Students. In 2 vols. Svo. 1/. Is. Aha, lately published, ANNOTATIONS on the EPISTLES ; being a Continuation of the above Work. By the Rev. JAMES SLADE, M.A. Vicar of Bolton-in-the-Moors. Fourth FJitioii. 2 vols. Svo. 18s. m LECTURES ON THE ELEMENTS OF HIEROGLYPHICS, LONDON : PRINTED BY R. GILBERT, ST. John's square. LECTURES THE ELEMENTS HIEROGLYPHICS EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. BY THE MARQUIS SPINETO. ■QucE legat ipsa lycoris. LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. Paul's church-yard, AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL. MDCCCXXIX. TO HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY GEORGE IV. king of great britain and ireland. Sire, I SHOULD not have presumed to lay before your Majesty any lucubration of mine, had I not been for some years connected with that department of literature in the University of Cambridge, which owed its foundation to the munificence of one of your Majesty ^s royal predecessors, and is continued by your Ma- jesty's bounty ; the Professorship of Modern History. In addition to the annual course of Lec- tures which I have been in the habit of delivering to the members of the University 2017:^ VI DEDICATION. of Cambridge, on the languages and litera- ture of modern Europe, I have turned my attention to the discoveries recently made in decyphering and methodizing the sacred writings of ancient Egypt, induced by the lively interest which this subject has excited in almost every part of the civilized world. I now venture to lay before your Majesty the first fruits of my labours ; they are the tribute of my devotion to your Majesty, and my duty ; they are the imperfect offerings of my gratitude for the peace and comfort which I have enjoyed under your Majesty's Govern- ment. England became my refuge during the revolutionary storms which agitated my own country, and ever since that period it has been the land of my adoption. Deign, Sire, to accept the following pages with that gracious condescension, by which your Majesty's character has been at all times so eminently distinguished. DEDICATION. vii It is not for me to invade the province of the historian, or to attempt a description of the signal events, both at home and abroad, which have so happily marked the progress of your Majesty's auspicious reign. Let me, however, be permitted to bear my humble testimony to the encouragement and protection which your Majesty has invariably afforded to the arts which adorn, and to the institutions which improve, as they enlighten, society. I remain. Sire, Your Majesty's Most faithful and devoted subject and servant, SPINETO. CAMBRIDGE, May 30, 1829. PREFACE. It is with diffidence and hesitation that the follow- ing Lectures are offered to the public. They were originally intended as an addition to a Course of Lectures, which the Author, as Deputy to the Professor of Modern History, has been in the habit of reading in the University of Cambridge, on the literature and languages of modern Europe. At the instance of some distinguished individuals, a few of them were delivered last year at the Royal Institution in London, and at the desire of many of the Author's friends, they now appear before the world. In drawing them up, the Author has embraced a large field of inquiry, and has ventured on a path many parts of which have been but faintly ex- plored; and he has had, in many instances, no other assistance than the few scattered materials X PREFACE. which he had been able to collect in the constantly- interrupted course of his reading. He has had to address himself to people of education, on a sub- ject extremely difficult, and in a language not his own ; in a language full of idioms and niceties, which present difficulties even to the natives them- selves, and seem to baffle and defy all the efforts of a foreigner. Yet he cannot but remember the encom*age- ment he received, while delivering these Lectures at Cambridge, and at the Royal Institution. And as they who heard them seemed to have a plea- sure in listening to him, he cannot but hope that those who read them will be equally indulgent. In the following pages the Author never meant to give the detail, but simply the result of his reading ; and as they were originally intended for delivery only, critical discussion has been always avoided ; neither have references been collected nor the authorities noted down on which the dif- ferent statements were founded. To this defi- ciency all Lectures are liable ; it arises from the very nature of that mode of instruction. Yet PREFACE. Xi what was possible has been done ; in most cases the Author has not failed to mention, in a general way, the name of the author, or of the book from which he has taken the fact, or derived assistance. It is not improbable that his readers may occa- sionally differ from him on several points, which he has endeavoured to establish, in regard to the antiquities of Egypt, to its literature, to its pro- gi'ess in the arts of civihzation and luxury, and, above all, in regard to chronology, and the succes- sion of the Pharaohs. This very difference of opinion, which has always existed among critics, has allowed great latitude in subjects of antiquity and literature ; and a proper degree of candour will no doubt be shewn to the Author, in a land like this, of refine- ment, civilization, and liberty. Of the curious nature of the following Lectures he need say but little. The pubhcations of the Society of Antiquaries, and of many learned indi- viduals, — the discoveries of Dr. Young, — the amaz- ing success which has attended the labours of the xii PREFACE. indefatigable Champollion,— the monuments of all sorts which have been imported into England, — the great collection of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, and the magnificent descriptions which travellers of all nations have given of the majestic and wonderful ruins existing throughout Nubia and Egypt, have excited so much general interest in favour of hieroglyphics and Egyptian antiquities, that every thing connected with the existence and past gi'andeur of that extraordinary people is become an object of national curiosity. One observation, however, the Author feels himself called upon to make, though it is not an observation for him to make, if he could well avoid it ; and it is this : — that, unable to express himself as he might have hoped to do in his own language, he has had no resource but to assemble the greatest quantity of literary facts, and literary notices, which the limits of his Lectures allowed ; being conscious that as he could derive no advan- tage from his manner, he had to depend only on Ms matter ; and as he had no hope to please by the beauty of composition, his efforts have been always directed to give information, if he could, 8 PREFACE. Xlil and information only. And though these Lec- tures have been written with the view of suiting the taste of the general reader, yet he is not without a hope that they may occasionally offer to the scholar and to the antiquary materials suffi- ciently interesting to engage their attention. CAMBRIDGE, June \st, 1829. CONTENTS. LECTURE L INTRODUCTORY. Page Necessity of prior explanations, and of understanding ideas by signs — Difficulties attending the study of hieroglyphics — Illustrations — Requisites for understanding hierogly- phics — Rosetta stone — Necessity of knowing the lan- guage, history, and customs of the old Egyptians — An- cient historians, Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Manetho — Animals — Deities — Religious doctrine — Egyptian dynas- ties — Antiquities — Thebes — Memphis — Karnac — Louq- sor — Abydos, &c. — Belzoni — Cailliaud — Champollion — Conclusion - - - - 1 LECTURE n. Opinions of the ancients concerning the nature and use of hieroglyphics — Erroneous judgment of the moderns — Scarcity of monuments — The Isiacal table — Horapollo — Hermapion — The Rosetta stone — Discoveries made by M. de Sacy, by Mr. Ackerblad, and Dr. Young — Encho- rial or Demotic alphabet — Attempt at decyphering hiero- glyphics — Manner of counting numbers — Interpretation of names — Reflections ~ - - 49 LECTURE III. Continuation of the same subject — Discovery of the name of Cleopatra by Mr. Bankes — Means by which it was ob- tained — ChampoUion's publications — Lettre a M. Dacier xvi CONTENTS. Page — Precis du systeme hieroglypbique — Hieroglyphical Alphabet — Number of characters — Their meaning — At- tempt to account for their multiphcity and difference — Illustrations — Mode by which the Egyptians formed their hieroglyphics — Disposition of them — Examples — General rules — Application of Champollion's alphabet to the read- ing of the names of the Egyptian sovereigns — Under the Romans — the Greeks — the Persians — the Pharaohs — Coincidence between the Bible and some of the Egyp- tian legends — Observations - - - 79 LECTURE IV. Division of hieroglyphics — Figurative and symbolic hiero- glyphics explained — Legends of some of the principal deities— Aramon — Phtha — Neith — Sm6 — Sate — Rhe, or Phre — Isis — Osiris — Character of this latter in the Amenti — Account of the thirty-two regions in which the souls of the dead might be confined — Mode by which they were tried — Important tenet it inculcated — Origin of Tar- tarus, Elysium, Pluto, Cerberus, Acheron, Charon, &c. - 116 LECTURE V. Continuation of the same subject — Exhibition of the mode by which the souls of the dead entered the Amenti — Further examination of hieroglyphics — Explanation of some of the most important grammatical forms — Genders Number — Verbs — Pronouns — Mixture of hieroglyphics — Legends — Names of individuals — of the Pharaohs — Mystic titles which invariably preceded their historical name — Explanation of some most commonly used — Coin- cidence of the Egyptian inscriptions with the names of some of the kings mentioned in the Bible - - 150 CONTENTS. xvii Page LECTURE VI. Continuation of the same subject — Harnesses the Great — The Sesostris of the Greeks — Rames-Mei-moun — Legend, exhibiting the name and mystic titles of this Pharaoh round the cover of the Sarcophagus in the Museum at Cambridge — Explanation of the legend — Antiquity of the monument — Tomb of the Pharaoh Ousirei opened by Bel- zoni — Legend of his mystic titles and historical name — Reflections on the chronology of the Septuagint and the Hebrew text — Table of Abydos — Discoveries made by Champollion, confirming the canon of Manetho — The Hyk-shos, or the Shepherd kings — Reflections — Plan of an expedition— Important results that might be expected from it — Extract from Dugald Stuart - - 189 LECTURE VII. History of figurative hieroglyphics — Their general use amongst mankind — Explanation of the Mexican mode of writing by representation of the object — Alterations intro- duced by the Egyptians — Causes which must have pro- duced them — Attempt at explaining some of the cha- racters - - - - - 229 LECTURE VIII. Continuation of the same subject — Simplicity of the original figures and language of mankind — Hebrew alphabet — Chinese characters — Words mostly monosyllables — Ex- amples — Formation of dissyllabic and trisyllabic words — Examples — Similarity found in most of the Oriental al- phabets — Mode by which figures became arbitrary marks — Their shapes — Specimens of the Chinese and Egyptian — Names attached to each, generally imitative — How ex- pressed in writing — Examples — Difference of hierogly- CONTENTS. Page phics — Joining' of sounds — Analysis of them — Discovery of the alphabet — Generally attributed to the Egyptians — Remarkable passage of Plato — Consequences arising from it — General remarks _ - - - 263 LECTURE IX. Continuation of the same subject — Opinion of those who ascribe the invention of the alphabet to the Antedilu- vians — Scientific and literary productions of the old Egyp- tians — Books of Hermes — A short enumeration of their several classes, and of the priests who were to cultivate each of them — A further account of the scientific produc- tions of the Egyptians — Authorities of the classic writers — Libraries — Of Osymandias — Alexandria — An account of them — General observations _ . _ 297 LECTURE X. Different appellations by which Egypt has been called by the ancients — Origin of the name of Egypt — How called by the natives — Geography of Egypt — Its natural and poli- tical boundaries — Short account of the Oasis, and of the Egyptian colonies on the eastern shores of the Red Sea — Curious answer of the oracle of Ammon — The Nile — ^Difterent names by which it was known — Its course and inundation— Division of Egypt— Attempt at ascertaining when it was first made — Difference between Modern and Ancient Egypt — Mistakes of the ancients — Causes which produced them — Alterations produced by the Greek writers in the Egyptian names — Mode by which they have been recovered - - - - 336 CONTENTS. LECTURE XI. Statement of the subject — Difference in the chronology of the Hebrew text, and the Samaritan and Greek version of the Bible — Inadmissibihty of the Hebrew computation, proved by facts mentioned by sacred as well as profane his- tory — Ages of Nimrod, of Ninus, and of Abraham, ascer- tained — Foundation of the Egyptian monarchy by Mis- raim — Multiplication of mankind — Opinion of Bishop Cumberland confuted — Alteration of the Hebrew chrono- logy — Objections stated and resolved — Reasons why the genealogical tables recorded by the ancient historians are entitled to credit — Causes which produced the discrepancy in the names and number of the different sovereigns — At- tempt at reducing to a reasonable computation the fabulous reckonings of the Oriental historians — System of M. Gibert — Explained — Exemplified — Babylonian, Egyp- tian, and Chinese chronology . _ . 370 LECTURE XIL Anaglyphs — Remarkable instance of one, exhibiting the figures of the Israelites, Hyk-shos, and Negroes — National sentiments of the Egyptians concerning these Shepherds — Attempt at ascertaining their origin — Historical account from Manetho, Diodorus, Chaeremon, Lysimachus, and Tacitus, analysed — Systems of the ancient and modern writers about the Hyk-shos, and the Israelites — Opinion of the Fathers and the primitive Christians confuted. Hypothesis of Mr. Bryant analysed - - 410 XX CONTENTS, LECTURE XIII. Continuation of the same subject — Hypothesis of Mr. Faber, in regard to the Exodus and the Hyk-shos, analysed — General reflections — Historical monuments — Important facts — Attempt at explanation — Objections — Conclusion 448 LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY. Necessity of ■prior explanations and of understanding ideas hy Signs — Difficulties attending the study of hieroglyphics — Illustrations — Requisites for understanding hieroglyphics — Rosetta stone — Necessity of knowing the language, history, and customs of the old Egyptians — Ancient historians, He- rodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Manetho — Animals — Deities — Religious doctrine — Egyptian dynasties — Antiquities — Thebes — Memphis — Karnac — Louqsor — Abydos, Sfc. — Belzoni — Cailliaud — Champollion — Conclusion. It is necessary, before I approach the subject of hieroglyphics, to make a few prehminary observa- tions. The information to be found in different individuals who assemble at a public lectm^e is very different. A lecturer must endeavour, above all things, to be as inteUigible to his hearers as the subject admits ; but this, in such a subject as hiero- glyphics, is very difficult, and every allowance must be made for me, while I am alluding to so many things which have been long buried in the ob- scurity of distant ages, and are matters upon which studious and learned men have thought much, and disputed not a little. 2 LECTURE T. The present Lecture will be chiefly occupied in endeavouring to explain such terms as I shall have hereafter to use ; the mentioning such characters and points of history as I may have hereafter to allude to; and in giving such information as it would be inconvenient to give while the Lecture is going on, and when such information must be taken for granted. In all sciences, and in every species of instruction, something is generally laid down in the way of lemma, that the thoughts may not afterwards be embarrassed by unseasonable in- terruption. Much of what I am now going to say may be already familiar to those who have at all considered the subject before us, and to such it may appear tedious and unnecessary. This is, however, the great difficulty with which a public lecturer has to struggle, and from which he cannot escape ; that what is necessary to the mind of one hearer, is not so to the mind of another. Mankind have always turned with great interest to the subject of hieroglyphics. These were cha- racters found on public monuments in Egypt. The inhabitants of that celebrated land were always considered as the great masters of the knowledge of the ancient world. Here were characters in which much of their knowledge might be con- tained, but it was quite impossible to know what their meaning was. On this subject, therefore, the curiosity of mankind has been always very in- tense. They were supposed to be the characters in which the priests expressed, or rather concealed INTRODUCTORY. 3 their knowledge ; and it was even thought that, in later times, the priests had themselves lost the art of understanding them. In looking at the charac- ters, some of them had the appearance of some- thing like letters ; some were the pictures of birds or beasts ; some of the human figure : nothing could be more fitted to baffle inquiry, and perplex conjecture. And now I must digress for a moment, to re- quest you will consider what an astonishing thing it is to express a thought of the mind by any writ- ten mark whatever. If I am thinking of a bird, or a lion, or a house, I may draw a bird, a lion, or a house ; a picture may represent a thought ; but be- yond this all is impossibility. When the Spaniards arrived on the coast of Mexico, the Indians, you are aware, had no other way of informing their rulers of this important event, but by drawing pic- tures ; and nothing can be more curious than the exhibition of this sort of picture-writing, to be found in Purchas's Pilgrim, which is an account of the early voyages, and of which I shall speak more fully in a future lecture. But consider, what a wide step there is between this picture-writing, and what we mean by wi'iting. The next possible step would be to represent a bird, or a lion, or any material object, by any very prominent hue belonging to the figure ; but when this has been done, I would ask, what can next be done ? Consider what an alphabet is ; how very artificial ! Consider what it is to combine the letters of the alphabet into B 2 4 LECTURE 1. words ; consider that there is no possible connec- tion between a cluster of these letters, or of these words, and a thought of the mind. Every mother can tell how slow and painful is the process by which a child may be taught its letters, as it is called. The process may well be slow and pain- ful ; for how should a child discover any connec- tion between the sound and the mark that is made to belong to it ? The difficulty, indeed, has been considered so great, that some philosophers have supposed that mankind could only have derived the use of letters from supernatural interposition. The Chinese are not in possession of an alphabet at this moment ; and nothing can be so curious as the system of their language. You will now, then, see the difficulty that be- longed to the subject of hieroglyphics from the first moment they were presented to an inquirer : was it a language of symbols ? did it consist of words ? was it made out of an alphabet ? was it a language spoken ? was it a dead language ? If a living language, what living language ? Was it a language known only to the priests themselves, as the Sanscrit of India was once supposed to be ? How endless were these fields of inquiry ! Many writers offered their reasonings and conjectures on the subject, and from this moment the study of Egyptian antiquities, and of hieroglyphics in par- ticular, was carried on in a direction totally dif- ferent from truth ; since imagination was substi- tuted for reason, and conjecture for facts. INTRODUCTORY. 5 I will offer you a specimen in illustration of what I am saying. Observe, for instance, the method employed in the seventeenth century by the Jesuit Kircher. This indefatigable writer, in the several works which he pubUshed on hieroglyphics, pretended to have discovered in all the Egyptian inscriptions en- graved on obehsks and mummies, the whole of the cabalistic art, and the extraordinary rules and pre- cepts of the most refined system of demonology. Indeed it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to give an idea of the absurdities which are found in his works, from the practical impossibility of translating some of his explanations. One instance will suffice. Among the obelisks which the Roman emperors removed from Egypt to Rome, there is one called the Pamphihan obeUsk ; it is entirely covered with hieroglyphics, and among them we find a cluster of seventeen characters. These, mo- dern ingenuity has discovered to contain the name of Domitian, accompanied by his titles of Caesar Augustus ; in the Greek language, Kaiffup 2e/3ac7roc, spelt in hieroglyphics Kiaao. How has the learned Jesuit translated them ? You shall hear : — " Gene- rationis beneficus praeses coelesti dominio quadri- potens serem per Mophta beneficum humorem aereum committit amoni inferiora potentissimo, qui per simulacrum et ceremonias appropriatas trahitur ad potentiam exerendam." I find it utterly impos- sible to make any translation of this jargon. Such is the specimen of the interpretation which 6 LECTURE I. the Jesuit Kircher made of hieroglyphics. Other writers, considering the land of Egypt as too con- fined a spot, thought that the doctrine concealed by these Egyptian characters affected the whole of mankind, and imagined that hieroglyphics con- tained the precepts and the system of the Chris- tian religion, revealed to the Egyptian priests 4000 years before its Foimder. Others, with equal truth, imagined that the hieroglyphics on the Pam- philian obelisk were intended to preserve the me- mory of the victory which the believers in the Trinity and the Word obtained over the wicked Pagans, six centm-ies after the flood, during the reigns of the sixth and seventh kings of Egypt ; and, to complete the whole, the chevalier Palin, thinking that there was the greatest possible simi- larity between the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Chinese characters, has asserted that we have only to translate the Psalms of David into Chinese, and write them in the ancient characters of that lan- guage, to reproduce the Egyptian Papyri ; and that Hebrew translations of many of the consecrated rolls of papyrus are to be found in the Bible. On the whole it was quite clear that no real knowledge of the nature of hieroglyphics could be obtained, unless some public edifice or obehsk was found, in which the same inscription was written first in hieroglyphics, and afterwards in some lan- guage that was known. It was then possible that the corresponding parts of the two inscriptions might be compared together, and the general mean- 1 INTRODUCTORY. 7^ ing, at least of some parts of the hieroglyphic in- scription, be discovered. But here again it was observed, that if the hiero- glyphic inscription was not made up of symbols, it must have a reference to some language, and unless that language was known, nothing more could, even then, be made out, but that such par- ticular characters had such a particular meaning, and the whole nature of hieroglyphics could not yet be considered as sufficiently ascertained. Now it so happens, that a stone of this kind has been found; the celebrated Rosetta stone, of which I shall have to speak hereafter. On this stone there were observed different inscriptions, — one in hieroglyphics, one in Greek, and a third in the characters which the Egyptians had been ac- customed to write for many centuries. Here was evidently a field opened for the en- quiry of learned men, and it was possible that in- genuity and diligence might now not be exerted in vain. But as the hieroglyphics seem not entirely to consist of pictures of animals or human figures, the probability was, that it had a reference to some language, and the question was, what this language could be. Probably it might be the language spoken in the country at the time the inscription was made. This, at least, was the only chance to pro- ceed upon ; for if the language was a dead one, or one known only to the priests, there was little 8 LECTURE I. chance of much discovery in this very curious subject. Now the gi-eat hope was, that the language should be the Coptic. This was the language spoken by the Egyptians in later ages ; and an in- genious and learned Frenchman, M. De Quattre- mere, has proved that this was also the language of the old Egyptians, preserved by oral communi- cation from time immemorial. His book bears the title of " Recherches sur la Langue et la Lite- rature de r Egypt ;" and it was published in Paris, in the year 1808. According, therefore, to M. De Quattremere, in whatever time these hieroglyphics were written, the language was probably Coptic. This language was not unknown to learned men ; we have the Pentateuch, and several parts of the Scriptures, translated into Coptic ; so that here was, again, some hope for the student of hiero- glyphics. This old Coptic language might also be affected by the incursions of the Arabians ; for their first incursion and settlement in Egypt precedes the age of Joseph : and there is, besides, every reason to suppose, that in later times, during the captivity of the Israelites in that country, they made a second incursion, and possessed themselves of the whole of the Lower Egypt, where they fixed their residence, and formed a new dynasty, — so much known in history by the appellation of Shepherd Kings, or, as the Egyptians called them, Hyk-shos. But the Arabic language is known. INTRODUCTORY. 9 and, therefore, this circumstance would not neces- sarily create an insurmountable confusion. But on these accounts it was on the whole clear, that no student of hieroglyphics was likely to succeed, unless he could make himself acquainted with the history of Egypt, the nature of its language, and, if possible, the customs and manners of the people. In the Lectures I shall have to deHver, I must endeavour to explain what progress has been made by those who laboured in this subject now before us ; and a continual reference, as you will already see, must be necessarily made to every thing con- nected with this country of Egypt. That the mind may not be hereafter embarrassed for want of a little preliminary knowledge, I will mention a few particulars. In the first place, we may refer to the ancient historians, and among them the most known and popular are Herodotus and Diodorus. Most of them seem to have travelled into Egypt for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the nature of its institutions, religion, and learning. They give their account, and state it as the result of the enquiry which they had made, and more particu- larly from the priesthood ; and the information they give may serve not a httle to illustrate such appearances as are found in the hieroglyphics. The animals they mention as sacred, and as, on differ- ent accounts, noticed by the Egyptians, were, the ram, the bull, the cow, the serpent, the bird ibis. 10 LECTURE I. the beetle, &c. Now all these are seen in the hieroglyphics. Sometimes a particular figure appears in the hieroglyphics, and this figure may be one of their deities. What has been said, therefore, of their particular deities, may assist us in comprehending these hieroglyphics. Theu principal god was Ammon, the Creator of the Universe, or the Demi- urgos. He had for assistants the god Cneph, or Cnouphis, and the goddess Neith. This god Cnouphis, and this goddess Neith, were considered as an emanation of Ammon, the one representing the male principle, or the emblem of paternity, the other the female, or the emblem of mater- nity ; and both together formed one single being, with the great Demim-gos, who had organised the whole world. This goddess Neith was mistaken by the Greeks for their Minerva. The Egyptians had, besides, the god Phtha, whom the Greeks mistook or compared to their Vulcan. Besides these deities there was the goddess Sate, whose particular department it was to dispose of the souls of the dead ; and the goddess Sme, who was the Egyptian Themis, and to whom the Greeks gave the appel- lation of AXiiOiia. The god Phre, or Re, was the eye of the world, the dispenser of light, which the Greeks have converted into their Apollo. Osyris, the representative of Ammon in the next world, be- came the Pluto of the Greeks, and Isis, as the wife of Osyris, or Sate, or Sme, as his assistant, was converted into Proserpine, who was the wife of INTRODUCTORY. 11 Pluto, and sometimes into Themis, the goddess of justice and truth. But in considering the deities of Egypt, we must not look upon them with the same eye as we do those of Greece and Rome. For nothing would lead us further astray than to apply to the Egyp- tian gods and goddesses the same principle which directs us in regard to the Roman and Grecian Pantheon. The gods and goddesses of Rome and Greece were each a different being, quite distinct among themselves, and the whole religion of both these countries was a regular polytheism. But the gods and goddesses of the Egyptians were merely emanations, or representations of the several attri- butes of the Supreme Being. For the religion of the Egyptians, in its primary institution, was Deism, and the immortality of the soul, and the certainty of a future life was one of their principal dogmas. In fact, many of the hieroglyphical legends which are found in MSS. or sculptured on the ruins of their temples, are but a representation of these important tenets, as I shall have to explain in a future Lecture. Indeed there seems no doubt that the Grecian Pantheon was but a corruption of the Egyptian, and that the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and of the Romans were but a distorted copy of the gods and goddesses of Egypt taken literally, as their Hades and their Tartarus, their Elysian fields, with Charon, Cerberus, Pluto and Proserpine, had no other model than the Egyptian 12 LECTURE I. Amenti, and the power of the Supreme Being over the souls of the dead. Sometimes the person to whom the hieroglyphics refer, may be some celebrated king, or conqueror ; and, therefore, the Egyptian history, such as it is given by Herodotus, Manetho, and others, may be of use to us. On this subject I shall say more hereafter. Sometimes the hieroglyphics seem to describe some scene that has taken place, to relate Some story, to refer to some rehgious ceremony, to some mystery, or to some part of their system of belief. To these we have already alluded, and in the course of these Lectures I shall have to give a distinct representation of this kind. In regard to history, though many ancient wri- ters, such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Plu- tarch and others, have written on the history and antiquities of Egypt, yet there is but one native Egyptian historian of note, who has given a regu- lar account of the history of his country, and this historian is Manetho. He was a priest, and wrote the history of his country, and of the Egyptian dynasties which had preceded Alexander, by the order of his sovereign, Ptolemy Philadelphus. His work, which was originally in three volumes, is now lost ; but some valuable fragments exist in the works of several ■writers, mostly primitive Chris- tians, who have transcribed him for the sake of con- futing his assertions. His work being, therefore. INTRODUCTORY. 13 considered as authentic and important by these writers, may be so considered by us in a later age, and we of course apply to these extracts thus preserved, when we seek for explanation of those monuments which refer to the events which he has recorded. From Manetho, therefore, we learn, that up to the time of Alexander, thirty-two different dynas- ties had reigned over Egypt ; that their rulers in- variably assumed the title of Pharaohs ; that during the first sixteen dynasties, Egypt acquired a degree of power and civilization unknown to the rest of the world, and was covered with a great number of magnificent monuments, many of which still defy the hand of time ; that it was during this early period that the various canals were dug, to carry every where the waters of the Nile, and that a large lake was excavated, to collect the superflu- ous waters. In short, it was during this period that the government of Egypt, the wisdom of its laws, and the learning of the priesthood, acquired that degi'ee of celebrity which so entitled them to the subsequent respect of mankind. From the same historian Manetho, from Euse- bius, and Josephus, and from monuments which Mr. ChampoUion has been able to decypher, we learn that the sixteenth dynasty of the Pharaohs was composed of five kings, who held the throne of Egypt for the space of 190 years, and that the name of the last king of this dynasty was Timaus Concharis. He held the throne of Egypt but for 14 LECTURE I. a short time ; for, in the sixth year of his reign, a horde of foreigners, whom Manetho represents as Arabians, made an irruption into Eg}q:)t, and took possession of that part of the country which hes near the Mediterranean, and is called Lower Egypt, the capital of which was Memphis. They formed a new dynasty, the seventeenth, which is distinguished by the historian by the name of Hyk-shos, or shepherd kings. It seems that they held the throne of Egyi^t for the space of 260 years ; and though they assumed the title of Pharaohs, yet they are represented as perfect barbarians ; rapacious and cruel, laying waste the country, pillaging and destroying temples and buildings, murdering all the men capable of bearing arms, and reducing to slavery the women and childi'en. During the whole of this disastrous time, Egypt was divided into two different govern- ments, or kingdoms. The one held by the Hyk- shos, at Memphis, the other by the real Pharaohs, who had retired to Thebes ; though it seems, that at the very beginning of the invasion, these latter, unable to withstand the torrent, became tributaries to the usurpers. The Pharaohs, however, did not remain idle at Thebes. Recovering their strength and courage, they began to attack the Hyk-shos, and, after a struggle which lasted for some time, the sixth of the Pharaohs, called Misphramouthosis, gained so decisive a victory over the enemy, that he drove them to their last reftige, the town of Aouaris. INTRODUCTORY. 15 This was a place of strength, a fortress, which the Hyk-shos had built against the attempts of the Assyrians, and where they had collected the re- mainder of their forces. But the Pharaoh Thout- mosis, son and successor of Misphra, now master of the whole of Egypt, brought up so many forces against them, that they, unable to defend them- selves any longer, left the country, and retired into Syria. During this period, the deliverance or departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt is fixed, and not without reason, as I shall have it in my power to prove, hereafter. This victory of Thoutmosis rendered him the chief of the eighteenth dynasty, undoubtedly the gi'eatest that ever held the throne of Egypt ; for among his several successors we find Rameses Meiamon, Rameses Sethosis, the Sesostris of the Greeks, and other princes equally celebrated for their wisdom and conquests. Of these princes I shall have occasion to speak hereafter, as the cover of the sarcophagus which once contained the re- mains of one of these mighty monarch s now lies in the Fitzwilliam museum at Cambridge. Upon the whole, therefore, we must divide the whole period of the Egyptian empire into the five following periods. The first begins with the first establishment of their government, and comprehends the time during which all religious and political authority was in the hands of the priesthood, who laid the 16 LECTURE I. first foundation of the future power of Egypt, founding and embellishing tlie great city of Thebes, building magnificent temples, and instituting the mysteries of Isis, from Misraim to Menes. The second period begins at the abolition of this primitive government, and the first establishment of the monarchical government, by Menes. From this time commences what is generally called the Pharaonic age, and ends at the irruption of Cambyses. This is doubtless the most brilhant period of the Egyptian monarchy, during which the whole of Egypt was covered with those mag- nificent works which still command our admiration, and excite our astonishment ; and by the wisdom of its institutions and laws, and by the learning of its priests, was rendered the most rich, the most populous, and the most enlightened country in the world. The third epoch, embraces nearly 200 years, and begins from the overthrowing of the empire of the Pharaohs by Cambyses, and ends at Alex- ander. The fourth epoch embraces the reign of the Ptolomies. It begins at the death of Alexander, or rather at the elevation of Ptolomy Lagus to the throne of Egypt, 323 years before Christ, and ends at the death of the famous queen, Cleo- patra, when that kingdom became a Roman pro- vince. At this period, which precedes the birth of our Saviour by two years only, the fifth epoch begins. INTRODUCTORY. , 17 and continues to the time, when about the middle of the fourth century, the Christian rehgion having become the rehgion of the country, the use of hieroglyphics was for ever discontinued, and the Coptic characters generally adopted. During the first three periods, from the esta- blishment of the monarchy under the priests, under the Pharaohs, and under Cambyses, the language used in the country was the old Egyptian, or Coptic ; while during the last two periods, from Alexander to the abolition of the hieroglyphics under the Ptolemies and the Roman emperors, we find in many cases the Greek language used on public monuments ; so that the same hieroglyphics which, during the hieratic, Pharaonic, and Per- sian government formed Coptic words, during the Grecian and Roman periods produced occa- sionally Grecian expressions, and Grecian titles. This, of course, was but the natural consequence of the nature of the different governments during these several periods. The priests and the Pharaohs were Egyptians, Cambyses and his successors Persians. But the Ptolemies came from Greece, and the Romans using the Grecian language which they had learned, preferred it to the barbarous Egyptian, as they called it, and of which they knew nothing. We must now refer a little to the topography and antiquities of this extraordinary country. Every thing of this nature has a connection with the subject of hieroglyphics, for they are found in 18 LECTURE I. particular situations, in temples, and amid the ruins of cities that were long the admiration of the world. These cities, temples, and monuments of ancient grandeur, I shall have continually to refer to in the ensuing Lectures. The whole of Egypt was divided into three large portions. The one more south, and nearer to the head of the Nile, was called Higher Egypt, the next was called Middle Egypt, and the last, near to the Mediterranean, w^as called Lower Egypt. Originally, during the hieratic government, the whole of this great country had but one capital, and this was Thebes, which the Eg}^tians called Tsaky ; but, after the Pharaoh Menes had built the city of Memphis, in Lower Egypt, and re- moved his court, and taken up his residence in that city, Memphis, though the second capital of the empire, became, in progi'ess of time, the rival of Thebes, and, ultimately, the cause of its ruin ; as both these towns have been very celebrated in history, a short account of their past magnificence and grandeur may not be uninteresting. The city of Thebes is, perhaps, the most asto- nishing work executed by the hand of man. Its ruins are the most unequivocal proof of the ancient civihzation of Egypt, and of the high degi^ee of power which the Egj^tians had reached by the extent of their knowledge. Its origin is lost in the obscm'ity of time, it being coeval with the nation which first took possession of Egypt ; and it is suffi- cient to give a proper idea of its antiquity to say. INTRODUCTORY. 19 that the building of Memphis was the first attempt made to rival the prosperity of Thebes. Its extent was immense, it filled the whole valley which was permeated by the Nile. D'An- ville and Denon state its circmnference to have been S6 miles ; its diameter not less than ten and a half. The nmnber of its inhabitants was in pro- portion to these vast dimensions. Diodorus says, that the houses were four and five stories high. Although Thebes had greatly fallen off from its ancient splendour at the time of Cambyses, yet it was the fury of this merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur. This prince pillaged its temples, carried away all the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory, which decorated its magnificent buildings, and ruined both its temples and its buildings. Before this unfortunate epoch, no city in the world could be compared with it in extent, splendour, and riches ; and, according to the ex- pression of Diodorus, the sun had never seen so magnificent a city. Previous to the establishment of the monarchical government, Thebes was the residence of the prin- cipal college of the priesthood, who ruled over the country. It is to this epoch that all writers refer the elevation of its most ancient edifices. The enumeration of them all would require more time than we have. I shall confine my observations to four of the most celebrated, to which I shall have occasion often to refer. c 2 20 L E C T U R E I. These were the temple, or palace of Karnac, of Louqsor ; the Memnonium ; and the Medineh- Taboii, or, as some other travellers spell it, Medi- net-habou. The temple, or the palace of Karnac was, with- out doubt, the most considerable monument of an- cient Thebes. It was not less than a mile and a half in circumference, and M. Denon employed nearly twenty minutes on horseback in going round it, at full gallop. It had in fi'ont two immense courts, adorned by ranges of columns, some of which were sixty feet high, and others eighty ; and at their respective entrances there were two colossal statues on the same scale. In the middle of the second court there were four obe- lisks of granite of a finished workmanship, three of which are still standing. They stood before the sanctuary, built all of granite, and covered with sculptures representing symbolical attributes of the god to whom the temple was consecrated. This was the Maker of the universe, the Creator of all things, the Zeuc of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Latins, but the Ammon of the Egyptians. By the side of the sanctuary there were smaller buildings, probably the apartments of those attached to the service of the temple ; and behind it other habita- tions, adorned with columns and porticos, which led into another immense coui't, having on each side closed passages, or corridors, and at the top a covered portico, or gallery, supported by a great INTRODUCTORY. 21 number of columns and pilasters. In this way the sanctuary was entirely surrounded by these vast and splendid buildings, and the whole was enclosed by a wall, covered internally and externally with symbols and hieroglyphics, which went round the magnificent edifice. Beyond this wall there were other buildings, and other courts, filled with colossal statues of grey and white marble. These buildings, or temples, communicated with each other by means of gal- leries and passages, adorned with columns and sta- tues. The most striking circumstance, however, is, that attached to this palace are the remains of a much more considerable edifice, of higher antiquity, which had been introduced into the general plan when this magnificent building was restored by the Pharaoh Amenophis, the third king of the eighteenth dynasty, nearly 2000 years before Christ. This more ancient edifice, or ra- ther its ruins, are considered to be more than four thousand years old, or 2272 years before Christ. I shall have to speak of them in a future Lecture. A second wall enclosed the whole mass of these immense and splendid buildings, the approach to which was by means of avenues, having on their right and left colossal figures of sphinxes. In one avenue they had the head of a bull; in another, they were represented with a human head ; in a third, with a ram's head. This last was a mile and a half in length, began at the southern gate, and led to the temple of Louqsor. 22[ LECTURE I. Speaking of this magnificent temple, and of the avenue of sphinxes I have just mentioned, Belzoni exclaims, that " on approaching it the visiter is in- spired with devotion and piety ; their enormous size strikes him with wonder, and respect to the gods to whom they were dedicated. The immense colossal statues, which are seated at each side of the gate, seem guarding the entrance to the holy gi'ound; still farther on was the majestic temple, dedicated to the gi'eat God of the creation." And a little after, '' I was lost," says he, " in a mass of colossal objects, every one of which was more than sufficient of itself alone to attract my whole attention. I seemed alone in the midst of all that is most sacred in the world ; a forest of enormous columns, adorned all round with beautiful figures and various ornaments from top to bottom. The graceful shape of the lotus, which forms their capitals, and is so well- proportioned to the columns, that it gives to the view the most pleasing effect ; the gates, the walls, the pedestals, and the architraves also adorned in every part with symbolical figures in basso rehevo and intaglio, representing battles, processions, tri- umphs, feasts, offerings, and sacrifices, all relating to the ancient history of the country ; the sanc- tuary, wholly formed of fine red granite, with the various obehsks standing before it, proclaiming to the distant passenger, ' Here is the seat of holi- ness ;' the high portals, seen at a distance from the openings of this vast labyrinth of edifices ; the various groups of ruins of the other temples within INTRODUCTORY. 23 sight ; these altogether had such an effect upon my soul, as to separate me, in imagination, from the rest of mortals, exalt me on high over all, and cause me to forget entirely the trifles and follies of life. I was happy for a whole day, which escaped like a flash of lightning." Such is the language of Belzoni in describing these majestic ruins, and the effect they had upon him. Strong and enthusiastic as his expressions may, perhaps, appear, they are perfectly similar, I assure you, to those of other travellers. They all seem to have lost the power of expressing their wonder and astonishment, and frequently borrow the words and phrases of foreign nations to de- scribe their feelings at the sight of these venerable and gigantic efforts of the old Egyptians. I have said that this avenue of sphinxes led to the temple of Louqsor. This second temple, though not equal to that of Karnac in regard to its colossal proportions, was its equal in magnificence, and much superior to it in beauty and style of execution. At its entrance there still stand two obelisks 100 feet high, and of one single block, covered with hieroglyphics executed in a masterly style. It is at the feet of these obelisks that one may judge of the high degree of perfection to which the Egyptians had carried their knowledge in mechanics. M. Denon asserts, that it would cost millions to move them from their place. They were followed by two colossal statues forty feet high. After passing 24 LECTURE I. through three different large courts, filled with co- lumns of great dimensions, the traveller reached the sanctuary, surrounded by spacious halls sup- ported by columns, and exhibiting the most beau- tiful mass of sculpture in the best style of execu- tion. " It is absolutely impossible," again exclaims Belzoni, " to imagine the scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incor- rect picture of these ruins. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving ruins of their various temples, as the only proofs of their former existence. The temple of Louqsor," he adds, " presents to the traveller at once one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur. The ex- tensive propylaeon, with the two obelisks, and co- lossal statues in the front ; the thick groups of enormous columns, the variety of apartments, and the sanctuary it contains ; the beautiful ornaments which adorn every part of the walls and columns, cause in the astonished traveller an obhvion of all that he has seen before." So far Belzoni : and in this he is borne out by Champollion, who speaks of Thebes in terms of equal admiration. " All that I had seen, all that I had admired on the left bank," says this learned Frenchman, " appeared miserable in comparison with the gigantic conceptions by which I was sur- INTRODUCTORY. 25 rounded at Karnac. I shall take care not to attempt to describe any thing ; for either my de- scription would not express the thousandth part of what ought to be said, or, if I drew a faint sketch, I should be taken for an enthusiast, or, perhaps, for a madman. It will suffice to add, that no people, either ancient or modern, ever con- ceived the art of architecture on so sublime and so grand a scale as the ancient Egyptians. Their conceptions were those of one a hundred feet high ; and the imagination which, in Europe, rises far above our porticos, sinks abashed at the foot of the 140 columns of the Hypostyle hall at Karnac." The third grand building of Thebes was the Memnonium ; that is, the tomb, or palace, of the Pharaoh Osymandias, whom the Greeks have sup- posed to be the same as Memnon. In the middle of the first court there was the greatest colossus ever raised by the Egyptians. It was the statue of king Osymandias, 75 feet high. Behind it there was an entrance which led into a second court, sur- rounded by porticos, supported by 50 other colos- suses ; and after crossing several porticos and different apartments, one arrived at the celebrated library, on the entrance of which was an inscrip- tion, the signification of which was, " The medi- cine of the mind." To the south of the Memnonium lies Medineh- Tabovi, an Arabian village, the monuments of which evidently prove that it was at one time the residence of a Pharaoh, or at least of some great 26 LECTURE I. person of his court. The assemblage of these monuments consists of a temple, and a large mass of buildings, some smaller and some larger. Amongst others, there is a small palace of one story, in high preservation, having still a staircase, its windows, doors, and balconies. The basis of this last is supported by figures of men ; and at a little dis- tance, a large palace, with courts in front, and adorned with basso relievos, which are mostly his- torical. They represent an Egyptian sovereign attacking a body of people, whose dresses evidently shew them to be Persians. The king obtains the victory, pursues the fugitives, besieges one of their towns, returns triumphant, offers sacrifices to the gods, and the like. Besides these monuments Thebes offers an im- mense number of others, equally grand and equally interesting ; among which we ought to reckon the tombs of the Pharaohs, in a valley to the north- west of the town. At the bottom of this valley, which is very narrow, the traveller is struck by several openings made in the rock : they are small doors, surmounted by basso relievos, and repre- senting an oval, in which there is a scarabeus, and the fiimre of a man with the head of a hawk. On both sides of this spnbohcal representation there are two men in the act of adoration. Each tomb, consisting of a great number of rooms cut into the rock, covered with sculpture and pictures, has a separate entrance. In the most inward apartment of each tomb, often supported INTRODUCTORY. 27 by columns or pilasters, lay the sarcophagus that inclosed the mummy. It is invariably made of one block of gi'anite, and covered, inside and out, with hieroglyphics. The cover is also of one single block, and at the top is sculptured, in alto relievo, the figure of the person to whom the tomb belongs. There have been discovered, in these apartments, pieces of sculpture which give a perfect idea of the furniture used by the Egyptians, made in precious wood, and covered with stuff worked in gold. The easy chairs, the stools, and the couches, are very elegant, and extremely tasteful. The figm'e of their harps, and the great number of strings which they had, evidently shew that they belonged to a system of music both complicated and refined. At the time of Strabo, they reckoned forty-seven of these tombs, some of which had been opened. The total number of those which have been now opened amounts to eight. It is also to the north-west of Thebes, and in the chain of the Lybian mountains, that they have excavated tombs for the inhabitants of this renown- ed city. Innumerable galleries, more than two miles in length, were destined to receive the embalmed bodies of the citizens of Thebes. In many other parts, and above all to the west of the colossuses of Memnonium, the mountain is entirely hollow, and filled with tombs, more or less splendid. These tombs are still in existence ; and if the ruins of Thebes fill the mind with admiration, how 28 LECTURE I. can we divest ourselves of the painful sensation arising from the consideration that all these mag- nificent ruins, from which much information might be collected, remain in a spot now so desolate and uncivilized ? Such was mighty Thebes, the first, the most an- cient capital of the Egyptian empire. And though many of these splendid buildings were raised or restored under the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty, yet most of them derived their origin during the time of the hieratic government ; that is, when the priesthood held the supreme authority, both religious and civil. But this sort of government lasted only for a time ; and with the change of government began the desertion and the decay of Thebes. An individual, called Menes, wrested from the hands of the priests the temporal power ; and, to get out of the way of their influence and au- thority, he went to reside in Lower Egypt. In that part of the country there was a beautiful vale, at the foot of what is called the Lybian chain of mountains, which the Nile divided into two very unequal portions. To improve the strength and salubrity of this charming spot, Menes caused a new canal to be dug, into which he forced the waters of the Nile ; and in the old bed of the river he laid the foundation of a new city, the celebrated Memphis, to which the Egyptians gave the name of Mafi, or Mefi, and occasionally even Menouf. To prevent the possibihty of an inundation. INTRODUCTORY. 29 which might carry the river into the old bed, and endanger the safety of the town, Menes ordered a strong dyke to be erected, extending itself four leagues southward : and not far off from this em- bankment he made an immense lake, into which were forced the superabundant waters of the Nile. His son and successor, Athotis I., followed the plan and policy of his father ; and, after having built a large palace, came with the whole of his court to reside in this new capital of the Egyptian empire. The noblemen soon imitated the exam- ple of their sovereign, and in this manner Mem- phis, in a very short time, became the rival of Thebes, both in extent and splendour ; because the immediate successors of Athotis, animated by the same policy as their predecessors, very seldom or never visited Thebes, in order to avoid the influ- ence of the priesthood, chiefly resident there, to whom the new form of government was particu- larly obnoxious. Of the extent and magnificence of Memphis, historians speak in terms of admira- tion. At the time of Cambyses, it was not less than nine leagues in circumference, and abounded with magnificent buildings, which have been re- corded as such by all the ancients, and many of the moderns. Among these latter I will quote a passage from Abd-Allah, an Arabian historian, who visited these venerable ruins in the 13th century. " Notwithstanding the immense extent of this town, and notwithstanding its high antiquity, — notwithstanding all the vicissitudes attending the 30 LECTURE I. various governments by which it has been con- quered, and the efforts of many nations to annihi- late even its ruins, by carrying away the stones and materials of the venerable buildings, and mutilating and otherwise destroying the figures which adorned them ; and notwithstanding all the effects which the course of four thousand years must have neces- sarily added to so many causes of destruction, the ruins of this ancient, and formerly splendid city, offer still to the eye of the beholder a combination of wonders, which astonish the mind, and prevent the possibility of describing them. The more we consider them, the more we feel our admiration in- crease ; and each look one given at these ruins, is a new cause of amazement and wonder ; and when a man thinks to have acquired a perfect knowledge of the whole, he must be convinced that this pre- tended knowledge is much beneath the reality of truth." ^'^ Among the number of these wonders, a chamber is still to be admired, which is called the green chamber. It was cut out of a single stone, and was nine cubits (that is, thirteen feet and a half) high, twelve feet long, and eleven broad ; and filled all round with characters, and basso as well as alto rehevos, representing men and beasts in different attitudes. It was destroyed in the year 1449, and formerly belonged to the celebrated temple of the god Phtha, under whose protection Memphis had been placed. It was in this temple that, in progress of time, the Pharaoh Sethosis Rameses had placed 1 INTRODUCTORY. 31 his statue, as well as that of his wife, each forty- five feet high, and those of each child thirty, and all cut from one single block." Of the beauty of these statues, our historian speaks in terms of the highest admiration ; he calls them " the highest effort of the excellence to which the Egyptians had carried the art of statuary." You must not be surprised at the language of the historian. In Europe we have had no oppor- tunity of forming a correct idea of the degree of perfection which the Egyptians had attained in statuary as well as painting. Our ideas have been acquired from the few diminutive specimens gene- rally worked with great neghgence, and belonging to rehgious ceremonies, which, as they were to be executed according to an estabhshed and fixed pattern, prevented the artist from displaying the extent of his art, or of his genius. We have, therefore, concluded, that the Egyptians knew nothing either in painting or sculpture, and that the productions of their artists were by no means to be compared with those of other nations. But the fact is far otherwise. The perfection to which the Egyptians had carried the arts of statuary and painting has surprised the greatest connois- seurs. In the tomb discovered by Belzoni, the whole excavation, sculptured and painted, was in the most finished style of art. Mr. Salt observes, that their colours are generally pure and brilliant, but intermixed with each other nearly in the pro- portion of the rainbow, and so subdued by the 32 LECTURE I. proper introduction of black, as not to appear gau- dy, but to produce a harmony, that, in some of the designs, is really delicious. Nor is the language of artists themselves less strong. Mr. Beechey, a son of the celebrated painter. Sir WiUiam Beechey, professes himself quite fascinated with the effect of these combina- tions. " One would think it was in Egypt," says he, " that Titian, Giorgione, and Tintoret had acquired all that vigour and magic of effect which distinguishes them, in point of arrangement, and principally in the happy disposition of their darker colours." These magnificent monuments, however, are not the only ones w^hich are found in Egypt. The whole of that country is still covered with precious relics, which are equally ancient and equally inte- resting. From amongst them I shall mention two more, which are found in the Higher Egypt, and they are the temples of Dendera and Esne. The temple of Dendera, which the Greeks called Tentyris, was dedicated to Isis, whose colossal image was sculptured at the higher end of the sanctuary, where two gigantic figures were seen burning frankincense before the statue of the god- dess. The description which Denon gives of this magnificent temple, which still exists in the highest possible preservation, is very interesting. Columns, cornices, basement, internal and exter- nal walls, are all covered over with basso relievos, hieroglyphical inscriptions, and historical paintings. INTRODUCTORY. 33 exhibiting a great number of the customs and usages of the private hfe of the Egyptians, and the ceremonies of their worship. The whole is exe- cuted in so rich and masterly a style, as to be represented by those who have seen it as producing a wonderful effect. " J'aurais voulu tout dessiner," says Denon, " et je n'osais mettre la main a I'oeuvre. Je sentais que ne pouvant m' elever a la hauteur de ce que j'admirais, j'allais rapetisser ce que je voudrais imiter ; nulle part je n'avais ete environne de tant d'objets propres a exalter mon imagination." And again, " Ces monumens, qui imprimaient le respect dii au sanctuaire de la divinite, etoient les livres ouverts ou la morale etait dictee, ou la science etait developpee ; tout parlait, tout etait anime dans le meme esprit." It is at Dendera that all travellers agi'ee that we must seek for the ancient pattern of the several orders, and the most striking beauties of Grecian architecture. In this art, as well as most others, the Egyptians have been the instructors of mankind. In this temple of Dendera exists a monument, on which much has been written to very little pur- pose. It is the representation of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, by which name it is known, placed six to the right and six to the left, but so situated that those of the left seem as if issuing from the temple, while those on the right appear as if coming into it. They have besides the peculiarity of exhi- biting the Lion as the first sign, and the Crab as 34 LECTURE I. the last. The other is a kind of representation of a planisphere, in the ceiling of the small apartment, at the extremity of the temple, and round both a great number of hieroglyphics are seen. Another such Zodiac, as it was pretended, is found at Esne, which the Egyptians called Sne, or Sna, where there was a magnificent temple conse- crated to Ammon, the god, the creator of eternal light. This monument, like that of Dendera, is represented as a specimen of the high perfection to which the Egyptians had carried architecture, and exhibited in its plan, distribution, and orna- ments, one of the most beautiful models, equal in majesty and elegance to the most famed buildings of Greece. This monument, like that of Dendera, is of a modern date, and both belong to the period during which Egypt was a province of the Roman empire ; because the hieroglyphics which surround them, and which hitherto have been considered as con- taining an astronomical legend, merely exhibit the names of some of the Roman emperors, such as Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Domitian, and others. Besides these monuments, still existing in their original situation, there are others that, from time to time, the rapacious hands of conquerors and travellers have imported into different countries. The Roman emperors removed to Rome not less than four obeHsks, all of which are still to be seen in that ancient capital of the world. Mr. Bankes INTRODUCTORY. 35 removed the obelisk of Philoe, which now graces the grounds of his estate in Wales. Belzoni opened one of the tombs belonging to the Pharaohs in the vale of Thebes, and brought to England the celebrated sarcophagus of white alabaster; he even removed the cover of the other sarcophagus, which contained the mummy of the Pharaoh Ra- meses Meiamon, and presented it to the university of Cambridge ; other travellers have procured and brought to this country, as well as to others, statues, papyries, inscriptions, mummies, and monuments of all sorts, which are found in several museums, and particularly in the British Museum, the Museum of Paris, the Museum of Turin, perhaps the richest of all, and the Vatican library ; and, last of all, the French commission, sent by Napoleon to Egypt, has given so many accurate fac similies of most of the principal monuments still existing in Egypt, and brought over so many and various monuments of Egyptian antiquity, as to allow our learned men to become quite familiar with the characters, and, by dint of labour, with their subject and meaning. Among these monuments, the most important one, indeed, which has produced the whole of the discoveries made in decyphering hieroglyphics, is the celebrated Rosetta stone, which, by the gal- lantry of our army, now decorates the British Mu- seum. It is a huge broken stone, of black colour, discovered by the French in digging for the founda- tion of Fort St. Julian, near Rosetta, and it con- tains an inscription in three several languages, D 2 36 LECTURE I. or rather three different sets of characters ; one in Greek, the second in hieroglyphics, and a third in a sort of running hand resembhng the Hebrew letters, which were, in fact, the common characters of the country. It is this precious relic which has produced the greatest literary discovery of the age, perhaps the greatest of any age — our knowledge in the reading of the hieroglyphics. This I shall explain in my next Lecture. Another monument of gi'eat interest, and, with- out doubt, of equal importance to ascertain the history of Egj^t, was brought to light by Mr. Wil- liam Bankes, while endeavouring to obtain the accurate plan of the extensive ruins of Abydos. This ancient and formerly splendid city lies on the western coast of the Nile, between the 27th and 28th degree north latitude, and near the entrance of the great Oasis. On the wall of one of the lesser buildings, quite distinct from the principal pile, was found a legend, or a series of forty ovals, or rings, arranged in three long horizontal lines, each containing the mystic or honorary titles of the Pharaohs, who lived before Rameses the Great, whose name is the last, and fills the whole of the third line. These mystic titles, by their variety, evidently shew that they belonged to different Pharaohs, and have greatly assisted our antiquaries in ascertaining the order of succession to the throne of Egypt, which is found to coiTespond with the chronological canon INTRODUCTORY. 37 of Manetho. It is a great pity that a portion of the wall, on which this important monument is engraved, is in two places in ruin, so as to pro- duce a mutilated legend ; but as far as it goes, I have no hesitation to assert, that this genealogical table of Abydos is as important to history, as the Rosetta stone has been to the decyphering of hiero- glyphics. In considering these astonishing productions, we must really wonder how a nation, which was once so great as to erect these stupendous edifices, could so far fall into obhvion, that even their language and method of writing are unknown to us. But our wonder will increase, if possible, to a higher de- gree, when we take into consideration the mate- rials which have been so modelled. They had only four sorts of stones in general use for sculp- ture ; the sandy, the calcareous, the breccia, and granite ; all, except the first, are very hard ; and what is most singular, we do not know with what tools they were cut out. We know by experience that the tools of the present day will not cut gra- nite without great difficulty; and Belzoni, who had made so many experiments on this stone, doubts whether we could give it the smoothness and surface we see in Egypt. On the calcareous stone, the figures have angles so sharp, that the best-tempered chisel of our time could not pro- duce the Uke. It is so hard, that it breaks more like glass than stone. And yet, with these mate rials they have produced the most exquisite speci- 38 LECTURE 1. mens of architecture and sculpture ; for in both these arts their productions have a boldness of exe- cution that has never been equalled by any other nation of the universe. The gigantic statues of Greece and Rome are but dwarfs and pigmies when compared to those of Karnac, Louqsor, Esne, Den- dera, and, indeed, of the whole of Egypt and Nubia. They had made besides considerable progress in several manufactures, to a degree which is really astonishing. Their linen manufacture had a per- fection equal to our own. For in many of their figiu'es we observe their garments quite transpa- rent ; and among the folding of the mummies Bel- zoni observed cloth quite as fine as our common muslin, very strong, and of an even texture. They had also the art of tanning leather, and staining it with various colours, as we do morocco ; and actually knew the mode of embossing on it. Many specimens of the sort have been found with figures impressed on the leather quite elevated. The same must be said of their art in making glass, some of which was of a beautiful black colour, and so perfect as to resemble the natural obsidian. Of such glass was made the celebrated statue of Me- nelaus. This information we gather from Phny, who makes use of this observation, to prove that the art of manufacturing glass was very ancient. Besides enamelling, the art of gilding was in great perfection among them, and they knew how to beat gold nearly as thin as ours ; for Belzoni found many ornaments of the kind, and a leaf of INTRODUCTORY. 39 gold, which appeared to him extremely pure, and of a finer colour than is generally seen in our own. They knew also how to cast copper and form it into sheets, and had a metallic composition not un- Hke our lead, rather softer, but of greater tenacity. Carved works were very common, and in great perfection, particularly in the proportion of their figures ; and the art of varnishing and baking the varnish on clay, was in such perfection, that the most enlightened travellers have doubted whether it could be imitated at present. I have already noticed their skill and success in painting, and in the blending of the colours ; and, indeed, the more I read and consider what they have done, and what they were capable of doing, the more I am lost in amazement ; for as most of their stupendous works are of the highest antiquity, they must have been the production of their artists during the hie- ratic government, and so near to the deluge, that, even adopting our older system of the Septuagint chronology, a man can scarcely conceive how a nation could, in so short a time, render habitable the whole valley of the Nile, and acquire such knowledge, and make so great a proficiency in most sciences, in most manufactures, and in all the arts. But I must conclude my Lecture. I have alluded to such particulars, and men- tioned such names as it is necessary you should be acquainted with, before I enter upon what can properly be called the subject of hieroglyphics, ^luch of this knowledge many of you may be al- 40 LECTURE I. ready familiar with ; but this you will excuse. I have dwelt, however, at great length on the ruined temples and cities that Egypt now offers to the in- spection of travellers ; and I have alluded to the accounts that have been given of them, not only to enable you the better to understand such refer- ences as I may hereafter make to them, but to im- press upon your minds more strongly, the interest that belongs to hieroglyphics themselves. Were you, in the wilds of America, to see on the bark of a tree a few characters in which some savage had expressed the ideas of his mind, even these, however rude, would not be without interest to you. But very different must be the interest that belongs to any unknown characters, which have been traced to those who can be shewn to have been a highly civilized people, and who have been always considered as the instructors of the ancient world. Such characters have ever been, and must always be, the subject of rational curiosity ; and it is not at all wonderful to see the interest which hieroglyphics have excited of late years, when new prospects seemed to open, and better chances to offer, of comprehending their meaning. The great neighbouring nation of Europe has not been want- ing to its own glory on this occasion, and you are not likely to be outdone in so generous a course. Speaking of you as a nation, and speaking with those general views to which a foreigner like my- self may pretend, I should say, that rational curi- osity is one of those qualities by which you are INTRODUCTORY. 41 honourably distinguished. Your travellers per- vade every portion of the globe ; wherever light can penetrate, or air can circulate, there are they to be found. They even invade the regions of winter, where Nature seems to have forbidden the existence of man ; and the voyager has only to relate the resistance that he has made to her un- alterable decrees. Africa too, like the Pole, — I speak not of the two Americas, of Europe, or of India, — equally sees your adventurous travellers, who return to report her hitherto inaccessible won- ders, or perish in the attempt. You realize the description of the poet : What seasons can controul, What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul, Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs, By reason's light, on resolution's wings. Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes O'er Libya's deserts, and through Zembla's snows ? Great as your nation may be, and distinguished among the nations of the earth, this rational curi- osity is one of its highest attributes ; and I cannot suppose for a moment that this ennobling quality will desert you, when any subject, like that of hieroglyphics, is presented to your consideration ; a subject so connected with a country where once were to be found, as among you may be found now, so much of the knowledge and the science, the power and the civihzation, the fame and the glory, of the world. APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. The following account, which is extracted from one of the Letters of M. Champollion, published in the Literary Ga- zette, may serve as a further illustration of the high degree of civilization of the ancient Egyptians. Amongst the tombs at Beni-Hassan, M. Champollion has found drawings highly interesting, which give such full par- ticulars of the progress that the Egyptians had made in the different professions, arts, and manufactures, as to make us acquainted with the smallest detail of the mode they pursued in agriculture, in the several arts and trades, in their military education ; in singing, music, and dancing ; in the rearing of their cattle ; in ichnography, that is, por- trait painting ; in games, exercises, and diversions ; in do- mestic justice, and household economy; in historical and religious monuments ; navigation, and zoology. The drawings belonging to Agriculture, exhibit the tilling the ground either with oxen or by hand, sowing, treading the ground by rams, and not by hogs, as Herodotus says ; five sorts of ploughs, the use of the pick-axe, the reaping of wheat, the gathering of flax, the putting these two kinds of plants into sheaves, the carrying to the mill, the thresh- ing, measuring, storing in the granaries, which, as it ap- pears from the drawings, were made on two different plans ; the flax carried by asses, the gathering of the lotus, the APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. 43 culture of the vine, the vintage, carrying the grapes, two different sorts of presses, one worked by the hand, the other by mechanism; putting the wine into bottles or jars, the gathering of figs, the cultivation of onions, irrigation of the land, and other such exhibitions, containing explana- tory hieroglyphic inscriptions. In Arts and Trades, M. Champollion has already formed a collection of pictures for the most part coloured, in order to determine the nature of the objects, and representing the sculptor in stone, the carver in v/ood, the painter of statues, the painter of architecture, furniture, and cabinet- work of all kinds ; a painter with his easel painting a pic- ture ; scribes and clerks of all descriptions; waggons con- veying blocks of stone ; the art of pottery, with all the operations ; the cutting of wood, makers of oars, cabinet- makers, carpenters, sawyers, curriers ; the staining of com- mon leather and morocco ; shoe-making, spinning, weaving, glass-worker, and all his operations ; goldsmith, jeweller, smith, and the like. In Military education and tactics, the collection is equally splendid. It consists of several drawings, exhibiting all their gymnastic exercises, represented in above 200 pictures shewing all the positions and attitudes of two wrestlers, attacking, defending, retreating, advancing, standing, and thrown down ; and by them, says Champollion, " you will see whether the Egyptian artists were contented with figures in profile, the legs joined, and the arms pinioned against the side." Besides copying the whole of these soldiers wrestling together, that indefatigable Frenchman has also copied sixty figures, representing soldiers of all arms, a siege, a field of battle, the tortoise, the ram, the military punishments, the preparations for a military repast, and the manufacture of lances, bows, arrows, clubs, battle- axes, &-C. The collection belonging to Singing, Music, and Dancing, 44 APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. consists of pictures representing a concert of vocal and instrumental music; a singer, accompanied by a musician on the harp, is supported by two chorusses, one of four men, the other of five women, the latter beating time with their hands. It is a complete opera ; players on the harp of both sexes, players on the German flute, flageolet, on a sort of shell ; dancers, forming various figures, with the names of the steps which they dance ; and the female dancers of ancient Egypt, dancing, singing, playing at tennis, and performing various feats of strength and ad- dress. The drawings representing the rearing of cattle, exhibit herdsmen, all kinds of oxen, cows, calves, milking, making cheese and butter, goatherds, ass-drivers, shepherds with their sheep, scenes relative to the veterinary art ; poultry- yard, containing numerous species of geese and ducks, and a kind of swan, which was domestic in ancient Egypt. The drawings relative to games, exercises, and diversions, are particularly curious. Among them there is the exhi- bition of the Morra, the game which is so popular in Italy, particularly in Naples : the drawing straws, a kind of hot- cockles; the mall, the game of piquets planted in the ground, the hunting of the fallow-deer, a picture, representing a grand chase in the desert, in which are depicted between fifteen and twenty species of quadrupeds ; pictures of the return from the sport, game carried, dead or alive ; several pictures of catching birds with nets, or with snares ; draw- ings relative to fishing, with angling-rod, with the trident, or bident, nets, and the like. The pictures exhibiting the exercise of domestic justice, consist of fifteen drawings of basso relievos, representing offences committed by servants, the arrest of the offender, his accusation and defence, his trial by the intendants of the household, his sentence, and the execution, which is confined to the bastinado, the account of which is deli- APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. 45 vered, with the documents of the proceedings, into the hands of the master, by the intendants of the household. Domestic ecojwmy, is divided into ten different heads ; and the drawings which represent them are very curious. ThQ first division consists of pictures of several houses, more or less sumptuous ; the second of vases of different forms, utensils, and moveables, all coloured, because the colours invariably indicate the materials of which they are composed. The third division contains the drawing of a superb palanquin. The fourth a kind of room, with fold- ing doors, carried on a sledge, which served the great men of Egypt, in former days, for carriages. The fifth consists of pictures of monkeys, cats, and dogs, as well as the dwarfs and other deformed individuals, who, more than 1500 years before the Christian era, served to dispel the spleen of the Egyptian noblemen, as well as they did that of the old barons of Europe 1500 years after the Chris- tian era. The sixth division exhibits the officers of a great household, intendants, secretaries, Sec. The seventh, servants both male and female, carrying provisions of all sorts. The eighth, the manner of killing oxen, and of cutting them up for the use of the family. The ninth, a series of designs representing cooks preparing various kinds of provisions : and the tenth, the servants carrying the dressed meat to the master's table. The collection of drawings exhibiting historical and reli- gious monuments, consists of inscriptions, basso relievos, and monuments of every kind, bearing royal legends, with a date expressed, as well as the images of various deities. The department belonging to Navigation represents the building of vessels and boats of various kind and size, and the games of the mariners, which, M. ChampoUion observes, exactly resemble those that take place on the Seine on great holydays. The last division belongs to Zoology, and exhibits a series 46 APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. of quadrupeds, birds, insects, reptiles, and fish, designed and coloured with the utmost fidehty. This collection already amounts to more than two hundred specimens, and is extremely interesting. The birds, M. ChampoUion says, are splendid, the fish painted with extreme perfection ; there are above fourteen different species of dogs, such as house dogs, hounds, Sec. from the harrier to the spaniel. Magnificent as this account may appear, there is no doubt that it will be considered as very insignificant when compared with the further discoveries which will be made by the indefatigable and learned traveller. LECTURE II. Opinions of the ancients concerning the nature and use of hiero- glyphics — Erroneous judgment of the moderns— Scarcity of monuments — The Isiacal table — Horapollo — Hermapion — The Rosetta stone — Discoveries made by M. de Sacy, by Mr. Ackerblad, and Dr. Young — Enchorial or Demotic alphabet — Attempt at decyphering hieroglyphics — Manner of count- ing numbers — Interpretation of names — Refections. In my last Lecture I endeavoured to give some preliminary notions of the history and topography of Egypt, and we dwelt at some length on the number and nature of monuments which are still to be found, either in their original situation, or in the various public and private museums of this country as well as of others ; but, above all, it was our business to ascertain what were the notions which both the ancients and the moderns entertained of the nature and import of hieroglyphics. The Greeks were fully persuaded that hieroglyphics were a sort of mystic characters, intended to pre- serve the most important mysteries of nature, and the most sublime inventions of man ; they, there- fore, considered the interpretation of these charac- ters as exclusively confined to the priesthood, and 1 48 LECTURE II. even by them very little understood, as their real and primitive knowledge had been lost and passed away, in the annihilation of the power of the Pharaohs, first by the usm-pation of the Shepherd kings of the seventeenth dynasty, and afterwards by the irruption of the Persians, under Cambyses. This persuasion of the Greeks arose from their believing, what in point of fact seems to be the case, that Egypt was the parent of all arts and sci- ences, the storehouse of the most ancient records, and the repository of all the mighty events which had often changed the face of the world. This persuasion, joined to the profound secrecy under which the hierophant, or high-priest, imparted to the initiated in the mysteries of Isis the sublime truths, to which the veneration and credulity of mankind had attached so much importance, made the Greeks to look upon hieroglyphics as the mys- tic expression of these secrets, so carefully pre- served from the people at large, the explanation of which it was impossible to obtain. What has been said of the Greeks might be ap- plied to the Romans also. They seem to have known nothing about the nature of hieroglyphics. The story itself of a reward being offered by one of the first Caesars to him who should give a proper interpretation of the inscription on the obe- lisk which had been carried to Rome, seems very doubtful ; but even if we wish to admit the reahty of this story, as this reward was never claimed, — and we know of no work, or even attempt made to LECTURE II. 49 decypher this inscription, — we must conclude that the knowledge of the Romans about the nature and import of hieroglyphics was small indeed. This ignorance and misconception of the an- cients must be considered as one of the causes which have tended to mislead the moderns. Find- ing that all the classical authors of antiquity only spoke of two sorts of hieroglyphics, the one repre- senting the figure or picture of the thing, the other exhibiting the same thing by symbols, they, like the ancients, concluded that each hieroglyphic had a fixed and determinate idea. Misled by this rea- soning, they collected from the Greek and Latin authors all the explanations of the signs which had been recorded ; and in this way they adopted all the dreams of the ancients ; and as these signs, ex- plained by Diodorus, Horapollo, Clement of Alex- andria, Plutarch, Eusebius, and the like, were very few, the moderns had recourse to analogy, or ra- ther to imagination, whenever they found any new sign not recorded by these writers ; and in this way they added their own dreams to the dreams of the ancients. From this moment fancy was substituted for fact, and the impossibility of our knowing any thing about the nature of hierogly- phics, became every day more apparent, from the perusal of the works of the Jesuit Kircher, the Abbe Pluche, the ChevaHer Pahn, Count Caylus, and, in short, of all those who had written on the antiquities of Egypt. It is true, that the acute Warburton, in his Di- E 50 LECTURE II, vine Legation, from an attentive perusal of what Porphyry and Clement of Alexandria had said, concluded that " hieroglyphics were a real written language, applicable to the purposes of history and common life, as well as those of religion and my- thology ;" and that amongst the different sorts of hieroglyphics, the Egyptians possessed those which were used phonetically, that is, alphabetically, as letters. The learned still remained incredulous, and no one ever thought of endeavouring to as- certain what this alphabet might be, or even to apply this conjecture of the learned bishop to the monuments then existing in Europe. To do so, three things would have been neces- sary : first, to ascertain what was the ancient lan- guage of Egypt, and whether any remains were still to be found : Secondly, to possess a certain number of monu- ments, or faithful fac-similies of them : Thirdly, to have an authentic translation of an original Egyptian inscription, in a language known to our scholars. But of these three requisites none, unfortu- nately, existed at the time. Until Quattremere published his work, " Sur la Langue et Littera- ture de VEgypte" no one ever dreamt that the Coptic language was the language of the old Egyptians. The Copts, or Coptes, are, in fact, the natural inhabitants of Egypt, the only direct de- scendants of the primitive race. They still speak the Coptic language, though imperfectly ; but this LECTURE II. 51 language has been orally preserved among the peo- ple, and transmitted in writing, in Greek and Cop- tic characters, from the first establishment of Chris- tianity to the present day. They have, in fact, their missals, the Pentateuch, and some other works, translated into Greek and into Arabic, and from comparing these translations with their origi- nals, it was evident that the ancient common lan- guage of Egypt is not entirely lost. With respect to the second requisite, the number of monuments then existing in Europe were very few, and mostly collected in particular spots, so as to prevent their being consulted by the generality of scholars ; and the impressions and fac-similies of them were much too incorrect to be of any use ; nor were even these monuments themselves all genuine. Among those belonging to Egyptian antiquity then known, many were imitations, and many spurious. Such, for instance, are some of the obelisks in Rome, and the celebrated Isiac table so called on ac- count of its being supposed to contain the descrip- tion of the festivals which were celebrated in ho- nour of Isis and other Egyptian deities. This table, which is of bronze, five feet long, and three feet wide, is divided into several partitions, filled with all sorts of hieroglyphics ; and this strange mixture alone, independent of other reasons equally strong, seems to establish the fact, that it is a mo- nument of a modern date, fabricated at Rome to- wards the latter end of hieroglyphical writing, by some person who knew but httle about the science, E 2 52 LECTURE II. but who wished to exhibit some of the strange doctrines, rites, and ceremonies, which had been introduced in the mysteries of I sis, when they were estabhshcd in Rome, but very different from those once celebrated in Egypt. It was said, indeed, that this monument had been carried into Italy at the time of the Crusades, by a knight of the family of Gonzaga ; but it ap- pears that Cardinal Bembo, only four years after, got it from one of his workmen, who had thrown it away among other rubbish. From the cabinet of Bembo it passed into the museum of the Duke of Mantua, where it remained for nearly a century. At the taking of that fortress by the Imperialists, in 1630, the table of I sis disappeared during the pillage of the town ; but it is pretended that, a few years after, it got into the hands of a physician to the Duke of Savoy, who placed it in the Museum of Turin, where, most likely, it remains. This deficiency of public monuments, and the spurious nature of some of the few which were then known, were strongly felt by our scholars, especially when they had not an authentic transla- tion of any original Egyptian inscription, in any of the languages then known. Had such a transla- tion existed then, it might have helped our learned men to decypher the original, and get at the mean- ing of the hieroglyphics. It is true, that amongst the records we have received from antiquity, there was the interpreta- tion which the Grecian Hermapion had made of LECTURE II. 53 the hieroglyphics engraved on one of the obehsks, which, it was supposed, the Emperor Constance had caused to be carried to Rome ; but, unfortu- nately, the original of Hermapion is lost, and only a part of his interpretation has reached us in the work of Ammianus Marcellinus ; and, what is still more, the learned knew not which was the exact obelisk to which this interpretation applied. Some said that this obelisk was the one which now lies in Rome, before the Porta del Popolo ; others, that it was that which Pope Sixtus V. caused to be erected before the church of St. John Lateran, which, according to Plutarch, had been made by the order of the Pharaoh Rameses, to record his splendid victories ; but recent discoveries have afforded strong reason to believe, that the obe- lisk now standing before the church of St. John Lateran is a work of a more ancient date, raised by the order of the Pharaoh Thoutmosis, who lived nearly three hundred years before Rameses ; and the one which Hermapion translated, it is feared, has not escaped the ravages of the barbarians, much more destructive than the rapacious hand of time. Thus, partly from ignorance of the language of the old Egyptians, partly from the deficiency of monuments, and the incorrectness of the fac-similies of the few we had, and, above all, from the want of an authentic translation of an original inscrip- tion in any of the languages then known, the la- bour and ingenuity of our scholars were thrown 54 LECTURE II. away upon speculative and imaginary systems, which led them far away from truth. There was, indeed, one work, written by Hora- pollo, under the title of " Hieroglyphica" which is pretended to have been translated from Egyptian into Greek by a certain Phihp. 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 gra- phic system of the Egyptians, and the meaning of hieroglyphics ; but this is not the case, for, gene- rally speaking, this work of Horapollo is of a child- ish and doubtful nature, noticing only a few of the symbohcal hieroglyphics, and these not always cor- rect, and mostly belonging to another sort of writ- ing, 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 hterally to nothing, when the French government sent an expedition into Egypt, most hberally provided with a select body of antiquarians and architects, surveyors, natural- ists, and draughtsmen, to discover, copy, and carry away all that was fitted to explain the scientific and Hterary 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 engrav- ing have been exhibited, and nothing can exceed the fidelity and exactness with which the several MSS. and inscriptions have been represented. LECTURE II. 55 Amidst the several monuments which they dis- covered, in digging for the foundation of fort St. JuHan, near Rosetta, they found a huge broken stone of a black colour, which was destined to pro- duce 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 endiorial 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 want- ing. 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 pm*port 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 circu- lated. The precious relic soon attracted the atten- tion of the greatest scholars of Europe, of a Por- son and a Heyne, in regard to the Greek ; and of M. Silvestre de Sacy, Ackerblad, Dr. Young, and Champolhon, in regard to the hieroglyphical, and the enchorial, or demotic. As it was natural to suppose, the intermedial 56 LECTURE II. text of this inscription, which in the Greek is called enchoi'ia grammata, or letters of the coun- try, was, after the Greek, that which attracted the attention of scholars, and consequently the first that furnished any precise notions concerning the system adopted hy the Egyptians in writing ; be- cause the hieroglyphics presented greater difficul- ties, and the Greek was sufficiently understood, both in England and abroad, to render this part at least of the investigation comparatively insigni- ficant. 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 httle further. He recognised and separated most of these alpha- betical elements from the proper names, but de- duced his conclusions from the preamble of the decree, which consists in a great measure of fo- reign proper names ; and believing that this part of the inscription was throughout alphabetical, he never suspected the suppression of the intenne- diate vowels, according to the custom of most of the Orientals, and even of the Hebrews, and thought that every word was spelt most fiilly and accurately, without any omission whatever. For this reason, when Mr. Akerblad applied his alpha- LECTURE II. 57 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 Egyp- tians 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 anti- quaries, 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 re- mained, if not imnoticed, at least without pro- ducing the effect which might have been expected, till the year 1814, when Dr. Young published, in the Archselogia, 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 58 LECTURE II. 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 Pto- lemy Epiphanes, his liberality to the temples, and to the gods; his success against his rebeUious 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 Xan- thicus, the eighteenth of the Egyptian month Mechir, of the young king who received the gov- ernment of the country from his father, lord of the asp-bearing diadems, illustrious in glory, who has estabhshed Egypt ; the just, the beneficent, the pious towards the gods ; victorious over his ene- 1 LECTURE II. 59 mies, who has improved the Ufe of mankind, lord of the feasts of thirty years ; hke Vulcan the mighty king, like the sun, the mighty king of the upper and lower countries ; the offspring of the parent-loving gods, approved by Vulcan, to whom the sun has given the victory ; the Uving image of love, the offspring of the sun, Ptolemy, the ever- living, beloved by Vulcan, the god illustrious, mu- nificent; the son of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, the parent-loving gods ; the priest of Alexander and the saviour gods, and the brother gods, and the gods beneficent, and the parent-loving gods, and the king Ptolemy, the god illustrious, beneficent, being Aetus, the son of Aetus ; Pyrrha, the daugh- ter of Philinus, being the prize-bearer of Berenice the beneficent ; Areia, the daughter of Diogenes, being the bearer of baskets of Arsinoe the brother- loving ; Irene, the daughter of Ptolemy, being priestess of Arsinoe the parent-loving ; it was this day decreed by the high-priests, the prophets, those who enter the sacred recesses to attire the gods, the wing-bearers, and the sacred scribes, and the rest of the priests who came from the temples of Egypt, to meet the king at the assembly of the assumption of the lawful power of king Ptolemy, the ever-living, beloved by Vulcan, the god illus- trious, munificent, succeeding his father ; and who entered the temple of Memphis, and said : Whereas king Ptolemy, the ever-living, the god illustrious, munificent, son of king Ptolemy and queen Arsinoe, the parent-loving gods, has given largely to the 60 LECTURE II. temples of Egypt," &c. Thus enumerating all the warlike and benevolent deeds of Ptolemy, which they now wish to remunerate by ordering, " that the honours at present paid to king Ptolemy be augmented greatly ; that there shall be erected an image of king Ptolemy the ever-living, the god illustrious and munificent, which shall be called sacred to Ptolemy, studious of the prosperity of his country ; to Ptolemy, who has fought for Egypt, and to the image the greatest god of the temple shall offer the trophies of victory, in each and every temple, in the most conspicuous place in the temple ; all which things shall be arranged according to the custom of Egypt." Then follow the ceremonies which are to be observed, the appointment of the time in which they are to be performed, and of the priests who are to celebrate these ceremonies " with sacrifices, libations, and other honours ;" permitting " that the same festival may be celebrated with proper honours by other individuals," and that they may consecrate, in like manner, a golden shrine to the god illustrious and munificent, with due respect, keeping it in their houses, observing the assembhes and feasts, as appointed, every year ; which shall be done in order that it may be made manifest that the inhabitants of Egypt honour the god illus- trious and munificent, as it is just to do." And the whole concludes by ordering that " this decree shall be engraved on a hard stone, in sacred characters, in common characters, and in Greek; LECTURE II. 61 and placed in the first temples, and in the second temples, and in the third temples, wherever may be the sacred image of the king, whose life is for ever." Such are the contents of this curious monument, which, in the hands of our learned men, has turned out to be the link that connects the antiquities of Egypt with our own times. It belongs to a species of monuments which were by no means uncommon in Egypt. M. Champollion, in his first letter to the duke of Blacas, gives an account of a gi'oup now existing in the Museum of Turin^ representing the Pharaoh Horns, one of the princes of the eighteenth dynasty, and of his daughter Tmauhmot, at the foot of which there is an inscription of twenty-six lines, in hieroglyphical characters ; which, as is the case with the Rosetta stone, is a decree, or a resolution, adopted by authority, enumerating all the benefits which king Horus had done to Egypt, and ordering that his image, as well as that of his daughter, should be placed in a conspicuous part of the tem- ple, there to receive the honours which are speci- fied in the decree ; and concluding with an order to the priests, who are to take care of these images, and to perform, in their honour, some pecidiar ceremonies. Of this monument I shall have to speak more at length ; I mention it here, merely to shew that decrees and inscriptions like that exhibited by the Rosetta stone, were by no means of rare occurrence. For the inscription engraved round 62 LECTURE II. the throne of Horus is perfectly similar to that of the Rosetta stone, in favour of Ptolemy Epi- phanes, both in regard to the general divisions of the two texts, and the employment of the same principal ideas, is a striking proof that the Egyptians, from time immemorial, had adopted the custom of preserving the memory of the reli- gion and piety of their sovereigns, and of the bene- fits which they had bestowed on the people. This curious fact shews also that the worship of kings, and a priesthood attached to this worship, in Egypt, had preceded, by centuries, the arrival of Alexander ; and that the Grecian princes who, after him, reigned over that country, endeavoured as much as possible to follow the customs which had been sanctioned by a long series of ages, without making any alteration in the form of gov- ernment, as well as the religion, which the Pha- raohs had introduced. But to return. The method pursued by our learned men in this herculean task of decyphering the Rosetta stone, deserves to be noticed : it may serve to give you a proper idea of the infinite labour to which they have been obliged to submit; a labour which at first seemed calculated to deter the most indefatigable scholar. Figure to yourself, for a moment, the fashion introduced of writing the English language with the omission of most of its vowels, and then suppose our alphabet to be en- tirely lost or forgotten, a new mode of writing introduced, letters totally different from those we LECTURE II. 63 use, and then conceive what our labour would be, if, after the lapse of 1500 years, when the Enghsh language, by the operation of ages, and the inter- course with foreigners, was much altered from what it now is, we should be required, by the help of a Greek translation, to decy^^her a bill of parliament written in this old, forgotten, and persecuted al- phabet, in every word of which we should find, and even this not always, the regular number of consonants, but most of the vowels left out. And yet this is precisely what our learned antiquarians have been obhged to do. The Egyptians, like most of the Orientals, left out many of their vow- els in writing. The enchorial, or demotic alpha- bet, which they used, has been laid aside since the second or third century of our era. From that time to this, that is, for nearly 1600 years, the Coptic alphabet has been used; and yet in this Coptic language, and in these very enchorial or demotic characters, was engi'aved on the Rosetta stone the inscription which they have decyphered. The method, therefore, followed by these learned men, in so arduous an undertaking, deserves to be noticed. A short account is given by Dr. Young himself, in the fourth volume of the Supplement of the Encyclopedia Britannica : the only fault it has, is, that after the manner of great discover- ers, he has made it too short. I shall endeavour to supply the deficiency. From the concluding line of the Greek inscrip- tion, it was natural to suppose that the three in- 64 LECTURE II. scriptions engraved on this stone were translated from the same original ; and though it was impos- sible 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 cha- racters shewed something like the shape of letters, it was shrewdly suspected that they might have been used as an alphabet. By comparing, there- fore, 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 inscrip- tion. These two groups, therefore, were considered as representing these two names, and thus not less than seven characters, or letters, were ascer- tained. 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 LECTURE ir. 65 fourteen times in the enchorial inscription, agree- ing 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 Egijpf was also identified. Having thus obtained a sufficient number of com- mon points of subdivision, the next step was to write the Greek text over the enchorial, in such a man- ner 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 direc- tion, from left to right. At first sight this diffi- culty 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 decypher- ing 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 G6 LECTURE If. Young published in the sixth number of the Mu- seuna 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 know- ledge, should be faultless and complete ; and we must, therefore, not be surprised at a few inaccu- racies, arising from scanty materials, in this first gigantic attempt at decyphering hieroglyphics. It is true, the opinion that hieroglyphics occasion- ally 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 ex- pressly stated that hieroglyphics constituted a real written language, applicable to all pursuits of com- mon, as well as public and scientific life, and particularly by Warburton, Zoega, and Professor Vater, who, in a note to Mithridates, asserted that the unknown language of the Rosetta stone, and LECTURE IF. 67 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 demon- stration, that the demotic alphabet of Akerblad, De Sacy, and Dr. Young, was the true alpha- bet 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 cha- racters. This stone belonged to M. Drovet- ti, 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. Champolhon at Paris, who copied for him some parts of a very important papyrus, writ- ten 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. F 2 68 LECTURE ir. In examining one of these manuscripts. Dr. Yomig, to his great astonishment and dehght, found that it began with these words, " A copy of an Eg)^tian writing ;" and on proceeding with his examination, it turned out to be a coiTect transla- tion of the very MS. which M. Champolhon had transcribed for him ; and both of them, in reahty, were nothing less than the copy of the inscription engraved on the stone discovered at Menouf, be- longing to M. Drovetti, which Dr. Young had seen at Leghorn. The contents of this manuscript are of a nature not less remarkable than its preservation and dis- covery. *' 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 de- scribed at length in very bad Greek, with their children and all their households." You will find the translation of this cmious document in the ac- count which Dr. Young has published about hiero- glyphics, 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. LECTURE II. 69 It is now some time since the public prints have announced another trihnguar inscription, engraved on a stone in one of the inosks at Cairo. As the stone itself, on account of its position, was not al- lowed to be removed, a correct fac simile of the three inscriptions is, perhaps, at this moment on its way to Europe. Should it ever reach our shores, I have no doubt that the interpretation will furnish us with further proofs, if proofs should still be wanting, of the correctness and reality of the modern discoveries, which, notwithstanding their success, are still looked upon by some sceptics with an incredulous eye ; so difficult is it to convince men who will not be convinced. With these observations I conclude for the pre- sent, at least, our research into the enchorial, or demotic characters. I shall hereafter revert to them again, when I shall have occasion to exhibit to you a more complete alphabet of these, as well as hieratic letters ; but for the present we must confine our attention to hieroglyphics, properly so called. In these, the success of Dr. Young was neither so certain, nor so extensive ; yet the merit alone of having first thought of ascertaining, by fact, the opinion of Zoega and Warburton, to read hierogly- phics, as letters, and actually spell the names of Berenice and Ptolemy, is, after all, so great, as to counterbalance every possible mistake ; for it was upon this discovery that M. Champollion after- wards engrafted his system, and was enabled to carry 70 LECTURE II. his researches into Egyptian antiquities, and Egyp- tian hieroglyphics, to the truly astonishing degree which he has done. In these tables you will see the illustration of my assertion. [[Table 1st, fig. I and 2.^ In the groups contained in these two ovals. Dr. Young was the first who ascertained that they expressed the names of Berenice [[fig. 1.]] and of Ptolemy [[fig. 2.[] ; and what is more, he gave to each hieroglyphic, or character, a proper and distinct value, and an individual import. As the learned Doctor proceeded upon guess and supposition, it could not be expected that he should never be wrong ; he, in fact, was wrong in the explanation of some of the characters, but he certainly was right on the whole. In the name of Ptolemy, for instance, [^fig. 2.[3 he read the square for P ; the half circle for T ; the lion for the syllable le, or ole; the three sides of the parallelogram for M ; the two feathers for E ; and the crooked line for OS ; which, altogether, he supposed made up the name of Ptolemeos. In the name of Berenice, [[fig. l.[] he also endea- voured to find out the import of each separate hieroglyphic, and read, or rather suspected, that the box represented the syllable Bi7' ; the mouth, or double oval, the letter E ; the undulating line the N ; the two feathers the C ; and the goose the syllable ken, or cen ; and thus he made out the name of Bireneken, or Bh'enicen. In both these ovals. Dr. Young considered the 1 LECTURE 11. 71 knot and the hiclge as useless ; which was wrong, as further discoveries have proved that the first stands for an o, and the second for a k. And again, he thought that some of the characters, such as the box, the goose, the Hon, and the crooked hue were syllables, when in reality they are simple letters, as both the names of Ptolemy and Berenice are not spelt Berenicen and Ptolemeos, but Brnks and Ptolmes, according to the oriental mode of leav- ing out the intermediate vowels. But we are to consider that this was the very first attempt ever made at assigning a fixed alphabetical value to hieroglyphics ; for although Mr. Bankes had as- serted, since the year 1818, that the characters contained in this oval [[fig. 3.)] represented the name of Cleopatra, as we shall see in our next Lecture, yet he had not assigned a characteristic import to any of the signs, nor had he said that each of these signs was a letter. ChampolHon did so, and it was then that he found that the lion was an L, and not a syllable. Besides these things already enumerated. Dr. Young also discovered the meaning, and inter- preted the signification of seventy-seven more sim- ple characters, and groups consisting of several characters, together with the feminine termination invariably attached to names of females, whether goddesses, private individuals, or princesses, which are the oval and the half circle, a termination in- dicating the female sex [[Table 1. fig. 15.[] ; the whole of which he published in the fourth volume 72 LECTURE II. of the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which I have already noticed. It is true, that in these important discoveries. Dr. Young seemed to give the meaning of these hieroglyphical groups taken all together, without assigning a proper value to each of the characters ; nor did he mark the alphabet of hieroglyphics in the same way as he had done that of the enchorial or de- motic : but still it was he who made the first import- ant step ; for it was Dr. Young who first ascertained that many simple objects were represented by pic- tures, that is, by their actual delineations ; that many other objects were used in a figurative sense only ; while a great number of the symbols could be considered as pictures of no existing objects whatever. Again, it was Dr. Young who first found out the marks or signs for numbers, that two objects were denoted by the repetition of the same character ; that an indefinite plurality was represented by three characters of the same kind following each other ; that definite numbers were expressed by upright strokes for units ; and arches, either round or angular, for tens, such as I offer you in this table. ITahle Ist.]] The units are expressed by single upright strokes, [|fig. 4.]] and they are always repeated to mark any number below ten,which is represented by an arch, either round or angular. No. e. The repeti- tion of these produces the repetition of as many tens up to ninety. A hundred is exhibited by a figiu'e LECTURE II. 73 very much resembling our nine. No. g. This same figure is again repeated for every hundred for any number below one thousand, which has a character of its own, to which hangs a cross. No. h. Thus to express the numbers two, three, four, seven, &c. ahke, we are to mark two, three, four, or seven upright strokes. To signify twenty, or thirty, or ninety, we are to write two, three, or nine, angu- lar or round arches. The Number 42, for in- stance. No. f, is expressed by four arches, which mean four times ten, forty ; and by two upright strokes, which make two. To signify the ordinal numbers, we are to place at the top of each of the numbers the figure marked No. h ; and thus No. a becomes the first. No. c the second, No.y* will become the forty- second, and the like ; and if we change this figure into a kind of three sides of a square. No. d, then the numbers will signify the first time, the second time, the third time, and so on. Again, it seems that the same gentleman first discovered the real expression, or hieroglyphic characters, employed to express several letters, such as N. M. P. T. F. as they are marked in the names of Berenice and Ptolemy. They may be, and often are, expressed by other signs besides these marked by Dr. Young ; yet it was a great matter, when no one ever dreamt of a hieroglyphical alphabet, to discover a few characters for some of the letters. Dr. Young also found out, or rather verified 74 LECTURE II. what had ah*eady been discovered by Zoega, in his work, De Orig. ct usu Oheliscorum, that all proper names were included in a border, a kind of oval ring, or a frame, which the French call cartouche. In this assertion Dr. Yomig went rather too far ; because the further discoveries made by M. Cham- polhon have proved, that this ring, or oval, is not a graphical sign, but a mark of political distinction, as it is engraved only round the names of kings and queens, and never round the names of private individuals. In these tables, for instance, one represents the name of Antinous> this favourite of the em- peror Hadiian, from the Barberini obehsk at Rome, which is spelt in two ways, Antainous [;fig. 5r\ and antiis [[fig. 6.]], in which latter case it only preserves all the consonants, and the initial vowel, suppressing all the interme- diate ones ; and the other. No. 7, represents the name of Lucilhus, spelt Loikilios, from the Be- nevent's obelisk. In a future Lecture, after I have exhibited to you the hieroglyphical alphabet, I shall retm-n to these groups, and explain to you the import and value of each character ; for the present I refer you to these gi'oups, merely to shew, that the oval, or ring, was not a graphical sign attending any name, but a mark of distinction, paid only to the names of sovereigns. Again, Dr. Young first aserted, that all hiero- glyphical inscriptions were read from right to left. LECTURE II. 75 as the objects naturally follow each other. This last principle, however, admits of too many ex- ceptions to be received as a rule. For the fact is, as M. Champolhon has proved, that the characters are sometimes disposed perpendicularly, and some- times horizontally, and sometimes both ways. This takes place whenever two, three, or four charac- ters, of different dimensions, happen to meet. Thus, for instance, in fig. 1, the oval contains the name of Berenice, and you find the box, which is B, over the long oval, which is R; then the undu- lating line, which is N, over two characters, the two feathers, which stand for E, and a kind of bridge, which is a K, and lastly, the bird by itself, which is S. Then follow the semi-circle and the egg, which, as I have already stated, are simple marks of the feminine gender, and, therefore, at- tached to all names of females. The general rule, therefore, found out by Cham- pollion, is to begin reading an inscription, whether written perpendicularly or horizontally, from the side to which the heads of the animals are turned ; or if, in the inscription, there be no animals, from the side to which are turned the angles, or circles, found in the text. This rule, says M. Champolhon, admits of no exception but one, and that is a hie- roglyphical MS., in which the characters are to be read from left to right, though the heads of the animals look towards the right hand. I have dwelt at so great a length on the dis- 76 LECTURE II. coveries of Dr. Young, because I consider them as the first and most important step which we have made in the labyrinth of Egyptian hiero- glyphics, and the fundamental stone on which M. Champollion has raised the astonishing struc- ture of his system, which will form the subject of our next Lecture. LECTURE III. Continuation of the same subject — Discovery of the name of Cleopatra by Mr. Bankes — Means by which it was obtained — Ckampollion's publications — Lettre a, M. Dacier — Precis du systeme hieroglyphique — Hieroglyphical alphabet — Num- ber of characters — Their meaning — Attempt to account for their multiplicity and difference — Illustrations — Mode by which the Egyptians formed their hieroglyphics — Disposition of them — Examples — General rules — Application of Cham- pollion's alphabet to the reading of the names of the Egyptian sovereigns — Under the Romans — the Greeks — the Persians — the Pharaohs — Coincidence between the Bible and some of the Egyptian legends — Observations. In my last Lecture I endeavoured to give you, first, an idea of the opinion which men of learning, of all ages and all nations, had entertained with regard to hieroglyphics ; secondly, of the difficul- ties which this general prejudice of the peculiar na- ture of hieroglyphics had produced, in diverting from its proper coiu-se any attempt that might be made in explaining them ; thirdly, I endeavoured to exemplify this assertion, by stating some of the interpretations published by Kircher, Dupuis, the Abbe Pluche, and the Chevalier Pahn. In the fourth place, I thought it necessary to call your •78 LECTURE III. attention to the scarcity of Egyptian monuments then existing in Europe, and the incorrectness of the copies which had been made of them ; then I men- tioned the principal of these documents, and pointed out to you the necessity of an authentic transla- tion in a known language of some of the Egyptian hieroglyphical inscriptions, which might serve as a guide to our scholars to get at the meaning of the original characters ; for without such a transla- tion it was impossible to make any discovery in the reading of hieroglyphics. I spoke afterwards of the discovery of the Rosetta stone, and of the alphabet of the enchorial or demotic characters, which M. De Sacy, Akerblad, and Dr. Young had found out by comparing the original Egyptian with the Greek translation engraved on this stone, and which enabled the learned Doctor to pursue his investigation in regard to the hieroglyphics also ; I mentioned then the discoveries he had made in spelling the names of Ptolemy and Berenice ; in finding out the manner in which the Egyi^tians wrote numbers ; in ascertaining that the figures contained in a ring, or cartouche, did invariably form or spell a name ; in establishing that an inscription should always be read from right to left ; and in publishing the meaning of more than one hundred characters, or groups, in the article Egypt, in the fourth volume of the Supplement to the Encyclo- paedia Britannica. I also mentioned that Mr. Bankes had first dis- covered, CTab. 1st. fig. 1.;] in the year 1818, the LECTURE III. 79 name of Cleopatra contained in an oval ; and the several steps by which this name was first ascer- tained, deserve to be recorded, since, while they exhibit the progress of the discovery, they fm'nish also a plain and popular proof of its authenticity. The account is given in a long note to a pamph- let on the phonetic system of hieroglyphics, pub- lished by the late Mr. Salt, our consul-general in Egypt, of which I will endeavour to give an abridgement. It was a constant observation, that when two figures appear sculptured, or engraved, on any monument, the first, or most forward, figure represented the male ; the second, or most back- ward, the female. In most instances, one figure alone is seen, and then it represents a male ; for instances of the female being represented alone are very rare. It was also observed, that when two figures, or a pair, appear once on an edifice, they were, in the same manner of association, repeated through- out the building; and the same repetition took place with the single figure, whether male or fe- male, to an endless multiplication. From this circumstance, Mr. Bankes suspected such figures to have been intended for portraits, or representations of the founder of the building, or occupier of the sepulchre. To ascertain this point, he caused a search to be made for the original sar- cophagus in one of the few tombs at Thebes, where the female figure was seen represented singly 80 LECTURE III. throughout, both on the sarcophagus and the walls ; and, having discovered such a tomb, he, on the gi'anite cover of the sarcophagus, actually found a female figure, habited as Isis, sculptured in alto relievo. This was a strong presumption that the female upon the walls was the same with the fe- male whose sarcophagus occupied the tomb. Again, he observed, that as the Greek inscrip- tion among the ruins of the ancient city of Dios- polis Parva, furnishes the only example of the name of a Queen Cleopatra preceding that of King Ptolemy ; so the sculpture on the same building furnishes the only example of a female figure taking precedence over that of a male. By comparing the signs which he supposed to represent the name of the man, he found them to agree exactly with those which Dr. Young had thought must re- present the name of Ptolemy on the Rosetta stone ; and Mr. Bankes very properly concluded, that the characters written over the female might be those which designated Cleopatra. This sup- position became demonstration, upon seeing that these very names were perfectly similar to those engraved on the obelisk of Philoe. You know, that this obelisk was a monument raised by the priests of Isis, in the island of Philoe, on which they engraved a memorial of King Ptolemy and his two queens, each of the name of Cleopatra, and under which there is a Greek translation of the original hieroglyphics engraved on the several faces of this pyramid. By comparing this transla- LECTURE III. 81 tion with the orighial hieroglyphics, the conchision became undeniable, that these signs represented the name of Cleopatra. Such was the progress of the learned in the science of hieroglyphics, when M. Champollion, in the year 1822, published his first essay, in the form of a letter to M. Dacier, in which he im- parted to the public the first solid notions on hiero- glyphics. He published as his own some of the opinions advanced by Dr. Young, in regard to demotic characters, and the application of them to hieroglyphics, he began by re-analyzing the characters contained in the oval rings on the Ro- setta stone, as well as on the obelisk of Philoe ex- pressing the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra; and thus by giving a greater latitude, and a more certain, more firm, and philosophical basis to the surmises expressed by Dr. Young and Mr. Bankes, he ascertained the real import of the several hiero- glyphics which make up these names. Then turning his attention to the description of Egypt, published by the French Government, he was enabled to read the name of Alexander in the oval, or cartouche, engraved on one of the edifices at the temple of Karnac, at Thebes ; and this trial produced the discovery of some new cha- racters. Assisted by these and other discoveries, M. Champollion published an alphabet, in which he gave the import of about one hundred hierogly- phical characters, which were used phonetically, that is, as letters of an alphabet. But as the number G 82 LECTURE HI. of the Egyptian alphabetical letters was very small,— according to some, no more than sixteen, according to others, twenty-three,— it followed, that several of these hieroglyphics must have been employed to represent the same letter, and used indiscrimi- nately in the representation of this letter. For in- stance, the letter a was represented sometimes by a hawk ; at other times by a quail, by the figure of an eye, by that of a feather, of a stretched arm. The letter s sometimes by a crooked hne ; some- times by a broken one ; at other times by a goose, by a kind of star, by a gridiron, and even by the figure of a boy, and so on. To explain this curi- ous circumstance, M. ChampoUion asserted, that the Egyptians, in wishing to express by hierogly- phics any letter of the alphabet, employed the figure of any object, the name of which contained, either entirely or partially, the sound of the letter which they wished to note. Thus, for instance, the hawk in Egyptian was called ahe, therefore was taken to represent the letter «, with which it began. A bird was called lialet, and, therefore, stood for the same letter ; the mouth was called roj therefore the figure of it represented the letter r, and so on. This was a gi'eat discovery, but not the only one which he had made ; for in this letter to M. Dacier, M. ChampoUion also asserted, and proved, that the use of phonetic characters in Egypt must have preceded the empire of the Greeks and Romans : that it must have been more ancient than Alexander ; and he annexed to this produc- 1 LECTURE III. 83 tion four tables, containing the names of several of the Roman emperors, and of Egyptian kings and queens, the explanation of whose names seemed to give a greater evidence, a greater degree of cer- tainty, to the alphabet which he also published. In this letter, M. Champollion had given to the world the first insight on the subject of hiero- glyphics ; and though his information was not extensive, yet it was of a nature which rendered future discoveries not only probable, but certain ; for in this letter, with very few exceptions, we had the ground-work firmly established on which future scholars might lay the result of future re- search, and by following the light which he had exhibited, they might have proceeded with sure steps through the dark mist of this intricate laby- rinth. Important as some of the discoveries are which he published in this letter, it is not my intention to state them to you ; because my object is to make you acquainted with another work of this most extraordinary man, which he published in 1824, under the title of " Precis clii Systems Hieroglyphique" It is this magnificent work which has immortalized the name of Champollion, and has secured for its author the respect and admiration of the present and future generations. In this work the critic may, indeed, find a few ble- mishes, and even the scholar and the man of taste discover two or three hazardous and contradictory notions ; but these faults will never prevent the philosopher and the impartial reader from considei- G 2 84 LECTURE III. ing this author as the man who, after the lapse of more than 4,000 years, has found out at last the true key to hieroglyphical reading, and afforded the light which is to lead us through all the in- tricacies of Egyptian antiquities. This publication, which even the Edinburgh Re- viewer styles " a work beyond all doubt of the very highest interest and value," not only exhibits a clear and comprehensive view of the few results which had been previously obtained, but embraces a gi*eat variety of new and important investigations, equally calculated to elucidate the graphic system of the ancient Egyptians, and to shed a strong light upon a portion of ancient history hitherto abandoned to scepticism or conjecture. In this masterly performance, the object of M. Champol- lion is to demonstrate the following six different points : First, that the phonetic hieroglyphic alphabet can be applied with success to the legends of every epoch indiscriminately. Secondly, which is, in fact, the consequence of the first statement, that this phonetic alphabet is the true key of the whole hieroglyphical system. Thirdly, that the ancient Egyptians constantly employed this alphabet to represent the sounds of the w^ords in their language. Fourthly, that all hieroglyphical legends and in- scriptions are, for the gi'eatest part, composed of signs purely alphabetical. Fifthly, that these alphabetical signs were of LECTURE III. 85 three different kinds : the demotic, hieratic, and hieroglyphical strictly so called. And, lastly, that the principles of the graphic system, which he has laid down, and which he proves by a great variety of applications and ex- amples, are precisely those which were in use among the ancient Egyptians. To proceed, however, with that regularity which is of the utmost consequence in an undertaking of this kind, I shall begin our research by the exhibi- tion of the hieroglyphical alphabet which M. Cham- pollion has published. In this table I offer you the principal characters reduced to our alphabet, or Roman letters. Tab. 2. But I ought to observe, that although the alphabet pubhshed by Champollion contained only 134 hieroglyphical characters which are, strictly speaking, phonetic, yet he has found out the real meaning and import of 730 more signs, some of which are symbolical, and others figura- tive ; so that the whole number of all hieroglyphi- cal characters, of every description, amount to 864. Thus he differs from Bruce, who stated them to amount to 114 ; and from Zoega, who reckoned 958. M. Champollion divides these 864 charac- ters into eighteen different classes, namely. Celestial bodies 10 Human figures in various positions . .120 Human limbs, taken separately ... 60 Wild quadrupeds 24 Domestic quadrupeds 10 Limbs of animals . . ; 22 86 LECTURE III. Birds, either whole or in parts . . . . 50 Fishes 10 Reptiles, either whole or in parts ... 30 Insects 14 Vegetables, plants, flowers, and fruits . 60 Buildings 24 Furniture 100 Coverings for feet and legs, head-dresses, weapons, ornaments, and sceptres . 80 Tools and instruments of various sorts . 150 Vases, cups, and the like 30 Geometrical figiu'es 20 Fantastic forms 50 Total ... 864 For the present, however, confining our observa- tion to the number of characters contained in his alphabet, I have to call your attention to several striking and curious circumstances. The first is particularly so, and that is, that some of the consonants, and almost all the vowels, are often represented by the same hieroglyphical cha- racters. M. Champollion assigns as a reason for such an imperfect mode of spelling, the diversity of the dialects spoken in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Egypt, and the different mode of pronouncing the words in each of these departments ; for, by allow- ing one hieroglyphic to stand for two consonants, the difference existing in these dialects will disappear in writing. Each people, in fact, would consider LECTURE 111. 87 this hieroglyphic as the sign of the consonant they used, and express it accordingly. The letter n (P), for instance, of the dialect of Thebes, was changed into F, or (phi), in the dialect of Memphis ; and in the table exhibited by Cham- pollion we find, in fact, that one and the same hieroglyphical character expressed both these con- sonants, the P and the F, and sometimes the V. Again, the mouth and the lion are occasionally put one for another ; although, strictly speaking, the mouth was the sign of the letter r in the Caschmouric dialect, that is, the dialect of Middle Egypt ; and the lion of the letter I in the Theaic and Memphitic dialects. In this way it is evident that the natives of these places could find no diffi- culty in reading the words, whether originally Egyptian, or adopted from the Greek, because one of them would have pronounced the hon as an r, and the other as an /. The same rule must be applied to the pronun- ciation of the vowels, which have a sound so vague that they are indifferently placed the one for the other. A single and the same character often expresses, on different occasions, the E or the I, while in others it is constantly employed for the A, or E, or O. But we must not be surprised at this strange permutation ; for the different dialects of the same language principally differ from one another in the sound of the vowels. A striking instance of this sort is found amongst all the nations of the Continent, but particularly in this country. 88 LECTURE III. Even now I can scarcely make out the English language as it is spoken in the north and south of the island. A thorough-bred Yorkshireman is worse than hieroglyphics to me. Another great characteristic, which is equally striking in hieroglyphics, is the great quantity of very different characters which were employed to express the same letter. Some of these were, in fact, represented by ten, twelve, fifteen, and even twenty and twenty-five different figures. M. Champol- lion, in remarking this great abundance of signs, is of opinion, that their multiplicity arose from their wish to represent the idea by the means of symbols, which might at the same time stand for sounds. " In writing," says he, " the articulated sounds of a word, they chose amongst the great number of characters, which they were at liberty to employ, those figures, which by their form represented the object that had a relation to the idea which these characters were to express." Thus, for instance, in these two groups. Table 6, fig. 25 and 26, which mean a child, or rather a son, an offspring, and which in the Coptic language, is called CE [[or se^, the Egyptians, fi-om all the hieroglyphics which were the marks of the letter S, employed in preference either the egg-like figiue of a gi'ain of corn, fig. 26, which in their language was called sono, from the generic name, siti, which means seed, or the figure of a goose of the Nile, fig. 25, which was called chenalo2^ex, on account of the great attachment which that bird shews for its LECTURE IH. 89 young, and consequently we find these two cha- racters standing for the letter s. In the same way, in writing down the name of Noub, one of their deities, to express the letter b they employed the figure of the ram, in preference to any other sign, because the ram was, by itself, the symbol of this deity ; so much so, indeed, that we find him often represented under the figure of a man, with the head of that animal. For the same reason, to express the letter ii, they chose from amongst the several signs employed for the purpose, the sign of a vase, because it was one of the attributes of this deity, to be gene- rally represented with one of these vases lying at his feet. The lion, which in Egyptian or Coptic, was called laho, or lahoi, that is, valde hirsutus, stood for the letter /, as you see in the alphabet ; and though this letter was represented by several other signs, yet the Egyptians, in writing the name of Ptolemy, and indeed of all the Roman emperors, always employed the figure of the lion, in prefer- ence to any other, no doubt, as a mark of the strength and courage of these sovereigns, as the lion is, and has always been, the symbol of these quahties. Perhaps here, en passant, I might observe, as an illustration of what I said in a former Lecture, that in the Arabic language, the lion is called lehouali, which sounds very near to the Egyptian Jaho, or lahoi, especially, as in the Hebrew Ian- 90 LECTURE III. guage, it is called lehieh. For the same reason, no doubt, the eagle, which in Egyptian was called akhom, represented the letter A, and was always employed in preference to any other sign, in spelhng the names and the titles of all the Roman emperors in which it occurred, because the bird was taken as the symbol of the Roman empire itself. Again, the oval which contains the name of Tiherius, engraved on the portico at Esne, and consecrated to the god Chnoubis, the letter B of the word Tiberius is represented by a ram, which was the symbol of this deity, to whom the temple was dedicated; while in the engraving of the temple at Dendera, which was consecrated to the goddess Athor, who was in fact the Egyptian Venus, the same letter B is expressed by a sign' totally dif- ferent, but equally characteristic ; and, last of all, this same letter B is represented by a small box of frankincense, in the word Sebastos, which, as you know, means venerable. In all these instances, and others of the same sort, which might be adduced, we perceive some- thing like a rule, which directed the Egyptians in the selection of their hieroglyphical characters. But this rule is not always perceivable. In these cartouches, or groups, for instance. Table 1, fig. 2, and 11, which contain the name of Ptolemy, the letter M, and the letter P, are expressed in two ways. In the one, fig. 2, we have the plain square for the P, and the three sides of a LECTURE III. 91 parallelogram for the M : in the other, fig. 11, these same letters are expressed by an owl, and by a striated square ; although we are unable to find out the apparent reason of this change. The same must be said of the other two gi'oups, fig. 5 and 6, representing the name of Antinous, in which the letter T is expressed by the hand in fig. 5, and by the triangle in fig. 6. I shall explain my meaning by an example, which will at once shew you the mode employed by the Egyptians, both in imagining and using the different hieroglyphics which represented the same letter of the alphabet. But, before I proceed, I request you will remember, as I have already stated, that to mark or note each letter, the Egyp- tians chose those objects the names of which began with the sound of that very letter. Now, suppose we were to imagine an alphabet of our own : to write the name of London, for in- stance, we might choose for the several letters the following images, or hieroglyphics. For the letter L we might take the figure of a lion, or of a lamb, or of a lancet, or a leaf, or any other such objects, whose names begin with an L. Again, to express the letter N, we might select a net, a negro, the north star, and the nave of a temple. To denote the letter D, we might choose the figure of a dro- medary, or a dagger, the deck of a ship, or even the whole of the ship, to signify the deck ; and for the letter O w^e might pick out the figure of an oak tree, an ostrich, an ox, or an owl. Now if from 92 LECTURE III. all these images, or hieroglyphics, we should be obliged to write the word London, we ought not to select the lamb, but the lion, as the expression of the letter L, because the lion is the acknow- ledged emblem of England. For the O we should prefer the representation of an oak-tree, or of the acorn its fruit, as connected with the building of a ship : for the N, you certainly would not pick out the negro slave, for this choice would be quite un- natural, and contrary to the decided antipathy which the English have to slavery ; nor would you select the representation of the nave of a church, because this emblem would better suit an ecclesi- astical government, and by no possible means could it apply to your nation ; but you would choose, in preference, the fishing-net, or the north star, as the only images which would convey to the mind of the beholder two of the characteristics of a sea-faring nation, as the English are. And, last of all, for the letter D, you would, I am certain, decidedly prefer the representation of the whole, or of a part of a ship, as the only image connected with the very existence of the nation. Thus the whole word London, written hieroglyphically, would then be represented by a lion, an oak-tree, a net, a ship, and the north star ; for, you remember, we have no need to repeat the second O. Indeed, the Egyptians seem to have been so much animated by this principle, as to enable us to find out the archetype of most of their phonetic hierogly- phics. Ahom, or aliliom, was the name which they LECTURE II [. 93 gave to the eagle, and the eagle, in fact, is the image they chose, to represent the letter A. A small vase, which they called Berbe ; a cow, which they called Bahsi ; a little goat, which they named JBareit ; or even a fox, which they called Baschor ; were indiscriminately used as signs to express the letter B. The figure of an ox, which was named Kelehin ; or of a hood, which was called Klast, or of the knee, which was nominated Kely, were all used to express the letter K. The hand, which was called Tot, became the sign of the letter T ; the mouth, to which they gave the appellation of Ro, was employed to signify the letter R; the image of a garden, which was named Schne, to ex- hibit the S soft, the sh of the English ; and I have already mentioned the lion to stand for the letter L, from its name lahoi. I might give further instances, and go through most of the alphabet ; but those I have stated will be sufficient, I hope, to shew you the elements of the phonetic hieroglyphical characters employed by the Egyptians ; which, in point of fact, is the original of the method generally employed at the present moment, to teach the letters to our chil- dren. To the sound of each letter we join the expression and the figure of an object with which the child is already acquainted, and which begins by the sound of that letter. Every mother knows with what pleasure she has taught her infant to know and repeat the letter M, by associating it with the name of mamma, — P, for papa, — N, for 94 LECTURE III. 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, there- fore, be said, that whenever we meet with a new phonetic hieroglyphic, the import of which is un- known, 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 let- ter stands for a name, expressing a particular sub- stance, 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 Chal- daic alphabets, we find only one sign for each letter, and this sign invariable ; but in the Egyptian alpha- bet 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 correspond- ence, 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 de- serves our attention in considering phonetic hiero- LECTURE III. 95 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 toge- ther, in order to simplify the system, by expressing them in om' own Roman characters. Now, twenty- nine 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 con- stituted 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 Abbe Valperga, in his Rudimentum Litera- turae Copticse, published at Parma, in 1783, gives an alphabet containing not less than thirty letters, in which he reckons tw^o different ^'s, two different t?'s, three different /^'s, five double letters, and amongst them not less than three different sounds given to sc. But from this extensive number, and from the 96 LECTURE III. 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 be- lieve 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 con- tained 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 dis- position when employed phonetically as letters. Sometimes you see them placed perpendicularly, as in these cartouches. Table 1, fig. 3 and 8, contain- ing 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 theyareplacedhorizontally,asin these groups. Table 1, fig. 1 and 2, representing the names of Berenice and Ptolemy. But the most remarkable circumstance is, that whether pei-pendicularly, or horizontally placed, they do not follow one another as our let- ters do, but they often are gi'ouped together, so as to partake of both these dispositions, and this hap- pens whenever any character exceeds in length or LECTURE III. 97 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 perpen- dicularly, whilst the whole inscription runs hori- zontally. Again, in this other group, [[fig. 7.]] which marks the name of Antinous, the legend runs perpendicularly, and yet some of the charac- ters are situated horizontally. The same must be said of this third cartouche, [[fig. 8.[] containing the name of Domitian. The inscription runs perpen- dicularly, and yet several of the characters lie horizontally ; but in all of them there seems to be observed one invariable rule, — that of never allow^- ing 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 hiero- glyphics, for it is observable, that in horizontal, as well as in perpendicular inscriptions, the charac- ters, 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 98 LECTURE III. racters is often inconsistent with the direction of the Hnes, 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 manu- scripts the characters are mostly placed in perpen- dicular lines ; but in basso relievos and paintings, especially when they refer to persons or indivi- duals, the signs are situated horizontally. The se- cond 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 hierogly- phics 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 quadru- peds, have been designed in profile. These are the peculiarities which I thought pro- per 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 pe- riods 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 LECTURE III. 90 into five epochs : the first is fabulous, begins at Misraim, and ends at the institution of the mo- narchy under Menes. During this time, the go- vernment was in the hands of the priesthood. The second epoch embraces the reign of all the Pha- raohs from Menes, and ends at the irruption of Cam- byses, 529 years before Christ. This is the most brilhant period of the Egyptian monarchy, during which the whole of Egypt was covered with those magnificent works which still command our admi- ration and excite our astonishment, and by the wisdom of its institutions and laws, and the learn- ing of its priests, it became the most rich, the most populous, the most enlightened country in the world ; and to this period, as it is the least known, we shall chiefly direct our attention, in regard to the several points which I shall have to offer to your consideration. The third epoch, which embraces nearly 200 years, begins from the overthrowing of the empire of the Pharaohs by Cambyses, and ends with Alex- ander. The fourth epoch embraces the reign of the Pto- lemies ; it begins at the death of Alexander, or rather at the elevation of Ptolemy Lagus to the throne of Egypt, 323 years before Christ, and ends at the death of the famous Cleopatra, when that kingdom became a province of the Roman empire. At this period, which preceded the birth of our Saviour by two years only, the fifth epoch be- gins, and continues to the time when, about the H 2 100 LECTURE HI. middle of the fourth century, the Christian religion becoming the religion of the country, the mode of writing in hieroglyphics was for ever discontinued, and the Coptic characters generally adopted. Now, if I should prove, that by means of the alphabet published by Champollion, we are en- abled to read legends and inscriptions belonging to each of the epochs, we shall be obliged, in the first instance, to conclude, that phonetic hieroglyphics have been used in Egypt from time immemorial ; and, in the second place, which is in fact a conse- quence of the first, that we have at last obtained the key to hieroglyphical knowledge. In regard to the Roman epoch, that is, the pe- riod in which Egypt was held as a province of the Roman empire, from the death of Cleopatra to the introduction of Christianity, we find on several monuments, both in Egypt and Rome, the names of all the emperors, from Augustus to Antoninus Pius, written in hieroglyphics, with the exception of Galba, Otho, and VitelKus, whose short reigns prevented the elevation of pubhc edifices, on which they might inscribe their names. The several obe- lisks now existing at Rome, such as the obelisks of Barberini, Albani, Borgian, and Pamphihan, and a part of the public buildings at Philoe, and the tem- ples of Esne and of Dendera, are covered with legends, containing the names and titles of Hadrian, Titus, Tiberius, Nero, Claudius, in short, of all the Roman emperors. These legends are all written in phonetic hieroglyphics, and may easily be read LECTURE III. 101 by the assistance of the alphabet which I have produced. In Table 1. fig. 1. I offer you the name of Be- renice ; in fig. 3. the name of Cleopatra ; in fig. 8. of Domitian Sebastos ; in fig. 7. of Lucillius ; in fig. 5, and 6. Antinous ; and it would have been an easy task for me to have filled these pages with inscriptions and legends dedicated to the other Roman emperors, to their queens and favorites, during the last period of hieroglyphical writing. Of the Greek epoch, that is, of the period in which the sceptre of Egypt was held by the Ptole- mies, a period which begins from Alexander, and ends with Cleopatra, I exhibit these few legends, containing the names of Alexander [[Table 1. fig. 9.^, of Philip, his father [[fig. 11.]], of two of the Ptolemies [[fig. 2 and 10.[], and of Cleopatra her- self [[fig. 3.[] ; and these specimens I hope will be sufiftcient to prove, that phonetic hieroglyphics were used by the Egyptians during this period, and that the alphabet which we possess exhibits the real and true mode employed by them in this extraor^ dinary species of writing. To this period we must refer the date of the Ro- setta stone, which, in itself, is the most convincing argument, that at this time hieroglyphics were used phonetically. Of the Persian sera there are few monuments left, because few can have been raised. Cambyses went over Egypt like a ruinous torrent, intent only on destruction, murder, and pillage. He could not 102 LECTURE III. offer to the frightened Egyptians any occasion to raise him any monument on which they might in- scribe his name as a beneficent god, a gi'acious monarch, a protector of mankind, or the father of his people. Of him, of course, we cannot expect to find any memorial, unless it be of execration, which, no doubt, was both loud and deep in the hearts of his miserable subjects. But M. Champol- lion, in the second edition of the " Precis du Sys- teme Hieroglyphique," which is just published, as- serts that he has found, not only the name of Cam- byses, but also that of Darius and Artaxerxes, writ- ten in hieroglyphics, among the monuments exist- ino' in the museum of the Vatican, and elsewhere. The name of Cambyses, he says, is spelt Kam- hothy or Kamheth; that of Darius, Ndariousch ; and that of Artaxerxes, Artakhschessch. It is to be lamented, that the learned antiquarian has not thought it necessary to pubhsh the characters which exhibit the names of these sovereigns ; nor to im- part to the pubhc whether there was any title that accompanied these legends, and if any, what they were. For it would be rather curious to observe, at least in regard to Cambyses, whether fear had been able to persuade the Egyptians to stifle, or at least to dissemble, the hatred which they must necessarily have felt towards this destroyer of their countiy, this scourge of their nation. Though not able to exhibit the names of these sovereigns, I may at least satisfy your curiosity in regard to Xerxes, one of their successors, whose LECTURE III. 103 name was found engraved upon an alabaster vase, now in the cabinet of the King of France. It con- sists of seven characters [^Table 1. fig. 12.]] The first is the Coptic letter ^, (chei), which is pro- nounced in the throat hke the Spanish j. The second is cy, {sJiei), like the English sh in she. The third is an H {e, or an i). The bird is an A, the lion an R, and the sixth and seventh are again a cy (shei) and an A, which gives the name of Xerses, as it is spelt and pro- nounced in Persian, the pronunciation of which may appear very strange to you, Khsharsha. Besides this oval which contains the hierogly- phical name of Xerxes, there is on the same vase another inscription of five characters, which you will observe by the side of the table, and which spell the name Irina, answering to the word lere, or Iranien, which is the name by which the Persians call themselves. Besides the name of Xerxes, M. Champollion has discovered, on the basis of two sphinxes which lie in the hall of Melpomene, in the Royal Museum in Paris, the names of two of the Pharaohs belonging to the Mendesian dynasty, the Pharaoh Nephereus, and Pharaoh Acoris, his son and successor. Under these two sovereigns Egypt enjoyed some- thing like rest and tranquiUity. Nephereus, in fact, reigned six years, and Acoris thirteen. It is the longest reign we find among the princes of those dynasties, that occupied the throne of Egypt during this period of trouble and dissensions, from Xerxes 104 LECTURE III. to Darius Ochus, who, by imitating Cambyses, added at last to the crown of Persia the posses- sion of Egypt, by deluging that unfortunate country with the blood of its wretched inhabitants. In Table 1. fig. 14 and 15. 1 offer you the names of these two princes. The explanation of the first two signs which precede their names, does not fall within the limits of the present Lecture, as they belong to another sort of hieroglyphics, of which we must speak hereafter. The four characters which represent the name of Acoris [[fig. 13.]] spell Hahr ; the first figure is an Eh ; the bird an A ; the third figure a sort of an ax, is a K ; the lion an L, or an R ; and by supplying the intermediate vowel O, we shall have Hahor, of which the Greeks made Ahoris. The oval of the fig. 14. contains eight charac- ters : the undulating line is an N ; the bird an A ; the two lines an E ; the serpent a V, or an F ; the dart an R ; the horn an O ; the three lines an U ; the last character, though not marked by M. Cham- pollion in his alphabet, is either an E or an I, the ei or the Mda of the Coptic. So that the whole legend will give us the name of Naif one, or Nai- froui, which is the Nephereus of the Greeks, or the Nepheretis of Manetho. These four legends evidently prove, that hiero- glyphical phonetic writing was used by the Egyp- tians at the time of Cambyses ; I shall endeavour to prove to you, that this was the case long before that Persian conqueror. LECTURE III. 105 The obelisk Campensis, which the emperor Au- gustus removed from Egypt to Rome, to serve as a gnomon, in the middle of the Campo Marzio, shews on three faces several inscriptions, among which there are the legends which I offer you in these two ovals, or cartouches. The explanation of the first, which merely contains honorific titles, belongs to a future Lecture. The second alone must now attract our attention, as it exhibits the name of one of the Pharaohs, who lived more than an hundred and twenty years before Cambyses [[Table 3. fig. 1.]] Of the five figures which it contains, the square is a P, the crooked line an S, the owl an M, the tongues a T, and the bason, with the ring, a K. To which five consonants, if we add the intermediate vowels, we shall have the name of Psameteh, or Psameteg, the Psammeticus of the Greeks, a name of one of the most celebrated sovereigns of Egypt, who pro- tected the arts, encouraged commerce, opened the ports to the Greeks, and permitted them even to visit the interior of his kingdom, which his prede- cessors had most strictly forbidden. This last cir- cumstance has afforded to those who wish to deny the antiquity of the phonetic system in Egypt, with a plausible argument for supposing, that this per- mission granted by Psammeticus to the Greeks, to visit the interior of his empire, was, in fact, the origin of the Egyptian alphabet ; for as the Greeks had, at that time, the knowledge and use of the alphabet, they influenced the Egyptians to follow their example. This objection, I know, has been 106 LECTURE III. made, but I think it perfectly inadmissible, because, in the first place, the evidence of the Greeks them- selves, who confess that they received their alpha- bet from Cadmus, is more than sufficient to make us suppose, that, at his time at least, the Egyp- tians were acquainted with the use of letters. In the second place, M. Champolhon has produced a great number of monuments, legends, and inscrip- tions of all sorts, exhibiting the names of several Pharaohs who Uved long before Psammeticus, writ- ten phonetically. From amongst the many which I could exhibit, I shall select the following. The first is a long legend, which, together ^vith others of the same sort, has been found engraved on a column, still existing among the ruins of the first court of the splendid palace of Karnac, at Thebes. In this legend we have the names of two of the Pharaohs. The first is the Pharaoh Scheschonk, [^Tab. 3. fig. 2. No. 2.] whom Manetho calls Seson- chis, the King. He was the Schischac of the Scrip- ture, who, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, 971 years before Christ, according to the reckoning of the Hebrew text, " went up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and the shields of gold which Solomon had made." His army, as it is described in the Chronicles, con- sisted " of twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen ; and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt ; the Lubims, the Sukkims, and the Ethiopians." LECTURE III. 107 The name of this prince, as you see, is spelt as usual, without either of the intermediate vowels By or o, and it consists of four characters ; the two first («) stand for SC or SH, the long line (i) is an N, and the triangle (c) is a K ; so that by sup- plying the intermediate vowels, E, and O, we have the name of ScesconJe, or ShesJionk, The other Pharaoh, whose name appears twice in this same legend, is Osorgoii, [^fig. 2. No. 1 and 3.]] spelt Ocrhen, leaving out the intermediate o. The knot is an O ; the roller [[No.l.^ and the cross [^No. 3 J an S ; the oval or mouth an R ; the vase a K ; the feather an E ; the straight line an N. He was, on the authority of Manetho, which corresponds with this legend, the son and successor of Scheuschonk ; and he is the same Pharaoh who, in the second book of the Chronicles, is called " Zerah, the Ethiopian, who, with a host of a thousand thou- sand and three hundred chariots, went against Asa, the king of Judah, and was defeated at Mare- shah." The identity of these princes seems now esta- blished beyond the power of controversy. M. Champollion, in his late visit at Karnac, has dis- covered inscriptions which establish this fact. I will quote the passage. Speaking of the temple of Karnac, he says, '' In this marvellous place I saw the portraits of most of the ancient Pharaohs, known by their great actions. They are real portraits, represented a hundred times on the basso relievos of the outer and inner walls. Each 108 LECTURE III. of them has his peciiUar physiognomy, different from that of his predecessors and successors. Thus, in colossal representations, the sculpture of which is lively, grand, and heroic, more perfect than can be beheved in Europe, we see the Pharaoh Man- douei combating the nations hostile to Egyi^t, and returning triumphant to his country. Further on, the campaigns of Rhamses Sesostris ; elsewhere Sesonchis, or Shishak, dragging to the feet of the Theban Trinity, Ammon, Mouth, and Khous, the chiefs of thirty conquered nations, among which is found written in letters at full length, the word Joudahamalek, that is, the kingdom of the Jews, or the hingdom of Judahr This, very properly observes M. ChampolUon, " is a commentary of the fourteenth chapter of the first book of Kings, which relates the arrival of Shishak at Jerusalem, and his success. Thus," adds he, "the identity between the Egyptian SheschonJc, the Sesonchis of Manetho, and the Sesac, or Schischah of the Bible, is confirmed in the most satisfactory manner." I admit the truth that Scripture needs no confirma- tion, but it is gratifying to see even the truth of Scripture vouched and confirmed by profane testi- mony. But to return to our inscription. From it we also learn, what, in fact, was not recorded by history. The name of the father of Schenshonk, the chief of the twenty-second dynasty, whose name Hke that of his grandson, was also Osorgon ; a custom which seems to have prevailed in Egypt, of pre- LECTURE III. 109 serving the name of the grandfather in his grand- children. The remaining part of this curious and inter- esting legend, I shall explain in a future Lecture, as, some of the characters being symbolical, and others grammatical, they require that I should illustrate my subject with new reflections. For the present it will be sufficient for you to know that both these Pharaohs, Sesonchis and Osorgon, lived nearly one thousand years before Christ, according to the Hebrew reckoning, at which time it is beyond dispute that the Egyptians were in the habit of using phonetic hieroglyphics, and employing them as letters. Of the same sort are some inscriptions discovered by Mr. Salt, one of which was found at Medinet Hahoo, and exhibits the name of Tiraka, [^Tab. 3. fig. 15.^, in which I beg to observe a very curious variation, and that is, the horizontal line employed for a T, and becoming one of the synonyms for that letter, which is generally expressed by the figure of the hand. His name, in fact, so figured, was also found in Ethiopia, by Mr. Linant, a gentleman employed by Mr. Bankes to travel in that country, to discover, if possible, the site and extension, as well as the ruins of Meroe. In this inscription the horizontal line is a T, the geometrical figure an I or E, the Hon an R, the triangle a K. This is the same Tirliakali, king of Ethiopia, mentioned in the Bible, " who came out to wage war against Sennacherib, king of Assyria," of whom some 110 LECTURE III. learned men, of high hterary reputation, had been pleased to doubt the existence. He was a con- temporary with the prophet Isaiah, and lived full 700 years B. C. In these other legends, I offer to your conside- ration the name of two more royal personages of much older date. They are the Pharaoh Ammon- mai, Cfig. 4.;] the fourth king of the eighteenth dynasty, and his sister, Amouse, [^fig. S.]] who suc- ceeded him in the throne of Egypt. The emblem superadded to the ring containing her name, be- sides the goose, has the addition of the semi-circle, which is always the mark of females ; and the re- spective names, both of her and her brother, begin with three hieroglyphics, which stand for the same letters : the feather for A ; the parallelogram for M ; the undulating line for N. But in the ring of her brother [[fig. 4.]] we have the plough and the two feathers, which spell Mai, or Mei. In her ring we have the cinopoelex and the half circle ; the first standing phonetically for the initial of the syllable se, or, symbohcally, for the very word se, or she, but always exhibiting the same sound; and the half circle, as I have mentioned in a former Lec- ture, is the mark of the feminine gender, and shews that the name contained within the ring, is the name of a queen. One of the names that occurs most firequently, although with a little variation, on almost all the monuments and buildings of high antiquity, is the name of Ramesses, or Ramses; a name which 1 LECTURE III. Ill seems to have been borne by not less than five different Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty, two of whom had been great conquerors, and their memory was highly respected. Whether in more ancient times there had been any other Pharaoh of the same name, I shall not venture to decide, since the monuments which have hitherto been disco- vered do not mount much higher. But as we find in the book of Exodus, that one of the towns in Lower Egypt, built by the Jews dming their cap- tivity, was called Raamses, it is not improbable to suppose, that the appellation given to this town was in commemoration and honour of a prince of that name. It may also, perhaps, be worth noting, that the name of the town of Ramses, which the Jews built, is spelt in the original text by five letters only ; a resh, or r, an ain, or a, a mem, or niy and two samechs, that is, two ^'s, making in the whole Ramss, which is precisely the way the name of Pharaoh is spelt in hieroglyphics. [[Table 3. fig. 5 and 6.]] In both figures the name of Ramesses is expressed by a circle, which is a symbolical hieroglyphic, of which I shall have to speak hereafter, and stands for the letter R. In fig. 6, we have a perpendicular line, which is an A, and left out in fig. 5. Then follows a kind of three-tasselled knot, which is an M, and the four broken hues, each two of which are an S. To the first of these two great Pharaohs I have just mentioned, Manetho gives the surname of 112 LECTURE III. Mei Amon. This surname, in fig. 6, is made out by the feather, which is an A, by the dented parallelogram, which is an M, and by the undu- lating line, which is an N, speUing the name of Amon ; and the fourth character, a sort of a pedes- tal, is an M, and stands for the abbreviation of the word or syllable Mai, the whole making the surname of Maiamon. This Pharaoh was the grandfather of Ramesses Sethos, or Sesostris of the Greeks ; according to Manetho, his reign lasted for more than 60 years ; and from the inscriptions engi-aved on his palace at Medinet Habout, we learn that he was a warrior and a conqueror. The tomb of this prince, which is the fifth towards the east, is still to be seen in the valley of Bilban-el-Molouk, on the west of Thebes. It is a magnificent excavation, consisting of various cham- bers. In the middle of one of them there was a sarcophagus of red granite, the cover of which is six feet long, and now lies in the vestibule of the Fitzwilliam Museum, of the university of Cam- bridge. At the top there is, in alto relievo, sculp- tured the image of this prince ; and round that part of the edge which is whole, there is the iti- scription marked in Table 2. fig. 7. The name is phonetic, although one of the characters be consi- dered as symbolical, or rather figurative. For, in the second oval of the inscription, marked a, the first sign represents the figure of the god Re, or Ra, and, therefore, must be taken as an equivalent LECTURE III. 113 for that syllable, or at least for the letter R, simply ; then the knot, as in fig. 5 and 6, is an M ; the crooked line is an S, and the next character is equally an S, spelhng altogether Ramss, and by supplying the intermediate vowels, Ramesses. The other part of the inscription must form the subject of a future Lecture. To the second Pharaoh I have mentioned, bear- ing the name of Rameses, Manetho gives also the name of SetJios, or Set hosts, and Herodotus that of Sesostris. He was a warrior and a conqueror, since his image is invariably found in basso relievos, representing battles, sieges, marches, and encamp- ments. He carried his arms to distant countries, as in some monuments he appears surrounded by captives, whose dresses and manners are quite different from those used by the Egyptians. He conquered a gi'eat part of Africa, as in other monu- ments he is exhibited as receiving contributions, or presents of wild animals peculiar to that country, such as cameleopards, ostriches, monkeys, and the hke ; and the great number of splendid public buildings which he caused to be raised, evidently shew that he must have amassed great wealth, and increased the revenues of the state, at the expense of foreign nations. For the legend of this prince is found sculptured, painted, or engraved in the dedication, and on almost all the parts of the gi'eat edifices of Issamboul, Calabsche, Derry, Chirche, and Ovady-Esseboua, in Nubia ; on several places in the palace of Karnac, at Thebes; on the I 114 LECTURE III. columns and other places in the palace of Louqsor ; he is seen on every side, and throughout the edi- fice, which is called the tomb of Osymandias, among the names recorded in the chronological table of the palace of Abydos, and on several obelisks, which are still in Egypt, or have been re- moved to Italy. This is the same Pharaoh Rameses, whom Ta- citus mentions in his account of Germanicus, who, when \isiting the venerable ruins of the famous Thebes, inquired from the oldest of the priests the meaning of the hieroglyphical inscriptions which covered these monuments ; the historian informs us, that this priest said, that they contained the records of the ancient state of Egypt, of its revenue and military forces, and of the conquests of Lybia, Ethiopia, Syria, and a great part of Asia, made by one of their ancient kings, called Rameses. It is, indeed, a striking, and at the same time a gra- tifying circumstance, that after the lapse of so many centuries, we should be able to read these very monuments which Germanicus visited, and confirm by our reading the account which, accord- ing to Tacitus, he received fi'om the priest who at- tended him. Since writing the above, the French papers have announced that a papyi^us, containing an account of the expeditions and victories of Sesostris, has been found by ChampoUion, in Egypt, and that the whole corresponds with, and confirms, all that 1 LECTURE III. 115 we knew of this prince, from other inscriptions and monuments, which had been decyphered akeady. Something of the same sort about Ramesses Meiamon has also been stated by Professor Seyf- farth, in two letters, published in the London Weekly Review of March 14 and 21, 1829. They ought to be consulted ; for, besides the gi'eat inte- rest they possess on matters relating to the history of Egj^t, they may serve also to give an idea of the high progress which that extraordinary nation had made in all the arts that belong to civilized life. Among the papyri the learned Professor men- tions some, which " present a diary of the most important events that took place in Egypt ; on the margins are inscribed supplementary notes relat- ing to the affairs of distant provinces ; and have probably been in the hands of Diodorus Siculus." " Another papyrus closely written in hieratic characters, contains a complete sketch of the his- tory of Eg}^pt The narrative commences with the reigns of the Gods. Amnion and Vulcanus first ruled Egypt ; and they were succeeded by Ammon-Sol, and so on to Osiris, Typhon, Hovus, &c. dm*ing an interval of 13917 years. Thout alone is stated to have reigned 3936 years. Then follow the Heroes, and other sovereigns of Mem- phis ; which, with the former reigns, make out a period of 23200. The whole corresponds with Manetho." We shall see in our lecture on Chronology how these years are to be reckoned. I 2 LECTURE IV. Division of hieroglyphics — Figurative and symbolic hierogly- phics explained — Legends of some of the principal deities — Amon — Phtha — Neith — Sme — Sate — Rhe, or Phre — Isis — Osiris — Character of this latter in the Amend — Account of the thirty-two regions in which the souls of the dead might be confined — Mode by which they were tried — Important tenet it inculcated — Origin of Tartarus, Elysium, Pluto, Cerberus, Acheron, Charon, S^c. Of the several legends which I exhibited in our last Lecture, I read and explained to you only that part which contained proper names ; the remaining part, I observed at the time, consisting of charac- ters of a different sort, which required further con- sideration. It will be necessary, therefore, before I proceed with my subject, that I should make you acquainted with these characters. This will be the object of the present Lecture. All hieroglyphics, properly and strictly so called, may be distinguished into three different sorts, ac- cording to the greater or less degree of similarity they have to the object they are intended to repre- sent. These three sorts are, 1. Hieroglyphics proper. 2. Hieroglyphics abridged. 3. Hieroglyphics conventional. The figurative hieroglyphics, properly so called. LECTURE IV. 117 are those pictures which exhibit the exact figure of the thing. Of these, some are the representa- tion of the object, as it exists in nature, such as the sun, the moon, an ox, a bird, and the hke ; others, while they retain their original figurative character, are also used as simple marks to denote the species, and occasionally even the genus, or kind. Thus, for instance, in Table 3, fig. 12. the first characters, taken by themselves, will always spell Amonmai, for the feather is an A, the dented parallelogram is an M, the undulating line is N, the ploughshare is M, and the two feathers I. But this word Amonmai, without the last sign of the figure of a man, will be a compound adjective, sig- nifying, beloved hy Anion, a title of honour, which is generally given to all the sovereigns of Egypt ; whilst, with the addition of the last sign, the figure of a man, it becomes the name of a private indi- vidual. Again, in Table 3, fig. 8, 9, 10, the first cha- racter represents a ship, which is a generic mark ; but if after this mark we place one of the groups which follow it, then what is generic will become specific, and signify the ship of Phre, [[fig. 8.^ the ship of Osiris, [[fig. 9.^ or the ship of Benno, [[fig. 10.[] because such is the figurative and pho- netic meaning of each group, as I shall explain by and by. The same must be said of the other two groups, taken from a basso relievo of the palace of Me- 118 LECTURE IV. dina Habou, representing a victory of Rameses Meiamoun, before whom they are bringing a num- ber of prisoners. An Egyptian gives him an ac- count of the enemies slain, which he does by counting the hands that have been cut off from the dead. Another Egyptian writes their number, and a third proclaims it. Now the inscription placed over these persons, represents the figure of a hand, followed by the numeric signs which ex- press the number of the hands to amount to three thousand, (^Table 3, fig. 11. a.]] and immediately after there appears the figurative character of a man, followed by the number denoting one thousand, [[fig. 11. b.]3 which evidently refers to the number of prisoners. Such are what are designated proper figurative hieroglyphics. The figurative abridged are those which do not give an exact description, but only a sketch of the object : for instance, instead of giving the elevation, or even one of the sides of a house. They give a plan of the interior. The conventional figurative hieroglyphics, are those which, though very far from representing an object as it exists in nature, yet deserve the name of figurative, on account of their exhibiting the form, which the Egyptians attributed to certain things. Such are, for instance, the characters by which they expressed the firmament ; it was nei- ther more nor less than a regular ceiling, some- times interspersed with stars, and at other times simply painted blue. [[Table 3, fig. 13, U.^ Of LECTURE IV. 119 the same species are those which recal the idea of their gods, Ammon, Osiris, Isis, Sate, and the Hke. These characters, in regard to their origin, are symbohc, and as such we shall speak of them by and by ; but in regard to their form, they are figurative, because they mark the exact figure of these gods, such as the nation saw them in the temples. Besides these three different sorts of hieroglyphics, which all represent the image of the object, more or less accurately, there is another sort, which is called symbolical. These hieroglyphics not being able to express by themselves the forms and figures of the thing itself, are made to do so by bor- rowing the image of another object, which pos- sesses some qualities common to both. This was done in four ways : 1st. By taking a part for the whole : for instance, two hands and two arms holding a bow, and some arrows, were made to express a battle ; a box, with a flame or smoke issuing out of it, as if burning frankincense, represented an act of adoration. 2dly. By taking the cause for the effect ; for instance, to take the moon as the sign of the months ; a reed, with a little box used to hold ink, or other colour, for the act of writing. 3dly. By employing the image of an object to express another metaphorically. Thus, the wings of a bird signify the wind ; the head and shoulders of a lion, force and courage. 4thly. By convention ; when the image of one 120 LECTURE IV. o])ject is made to signify another, with which it has no similarity, nor even a distant relation, except what convention has given to it. Some of these may appear real enigmas, and may occasionally require explanation ; which, however, a tolerable acquaintance with the Coptic language' allows us to obtain. Such is the scarabeus, to signify the world, or the male nature, or paternity ; a vulture the female nature, or maternity ; a twisted serpent the course of the planets ; a mouse, destruction ; a. hare, openness. And, finally, we must reckon among these symbolical, or enigmatical hierogly- phics, those signs which are introduced to repre- sent some of their gods and goddesses ; and this representation may be done in three different ways. First, by exhibiting an inanimate object, or even part of an animated one, such as an eye, for Osiris ; an obehsk, for Jupiter Ammon ; a nilometer, for the god Phtha. Secondly, by representing each of their gods and goddesses under the human figure, but with the head of the animal that was consecrated to him or to her. Thus, the figure of a man, with the head of a ram, signified Jupiter Ammon ; with the head of a hawk, the god Phtha; with the head of a crocodile, the god Souk, or Suchus, something like the Saturn of the Greeks ; and so on. Lastly, by leaving out, altogether, the figure, and exhibiting only the animal, with some of the divine attributes. Thus, a hawk, with a circle on its head, signifies the god Phre ; a ram, having its horns LECTURE IV. 121 surmounted by a feather, or more generally by a circle, Ammon Cnouphis ; and so on. However ridiculous, or, if you like it best^ how- ever monstrous, this combination may appear to us now, it was the consequence of the notion which has prevailed among mankind from time immemorial, that some particular animal enjoyed the protection of, and was consecrated to, a parti- cular god ; it exists to this day in many parts of Europe, and it has existed amongst all the ancient nations. The form, therefore, which the Egyp- tians gave of their deities, of a human figure with the head of a particular animal, was neither more nor less than what was afterwards practised by the Greeks and the Romans, and after them by the Christians throughout the world. If, instead of placing an eagle by the side of Jupiter, a dove by Venus, a peacock by Juno, an owl by Minerva, a serpent by St. Paul, and a horse by St. Anthony, which are real hieroglyphics, we were to put the heads of these animals on the images representing each of these personages, we should have the exact symbolical characters used by the Egyptians. With them, however, it seems that the great respect they felt towards the Deity, a respect which has been shared by all the Orientals, might have been the cause which prompted them to express their names by symbols rather than by letters. Indeed, you may see in lamblicus, the import- ance which the Egyptians, and the Greeks who had been brought up in their school, attached to 122 LECTURE IV. the names of those of their gods, which they be- lieved of divine institution, full of mysterious sig- nification, and remounting to the first origin of all things. And although we find these mystic names expressed phonetically in the hierogh^hical legends, yet we are to remember that these texts were written by the priesthood, and that the characters them- selves w^ere considered as sacred, and pecuharly fitted to be employed in rehgious matters. This is so true, that in all documents wi'itten in the demo- tic, or common characters of the country, the names of the gods and goddesses were always and invariably written symbolically ; just as the Jews never wrote at full length the ineffable name of Jehovah, but always expressed it by a short mark, which they pronounced Adonai. We are even in- formed by the Leviticus, that the Jews abstained from using the word on any occasion, not only from the dread of profanation, but because it was forbidden by law, under heavy penalties. It has even been asserted, that the pronunciation of this word was lost during the Babylonian captivity. The Egyptians seem to have had the same reh- gious dread, and consequently to have adopted the same custom. Indeed, Champollion openly asserts that they m-ote the names of their principal deity, at least, in one way, and pronounced it in another. This religious feeling seems to have prevailed among the Greeks also. For in Athens they had a prophetic and a mysterious book, which they called the Testament, to which they beUeved the LECTURE IV. 123 safety of the Republic was attached. They pre- served it with so much care, that amongst all their writers no one ever dared to make any mention of it ; and the little we know of this subject has been collected from the famous oration of Dinarcus against Demosthenes, whom he accuses of having failed in the respect due to this ineffable book, so connected with the welfare and safety of the state. You know that this was the case among the Romans also, by whom a certain name was held in such reverence, that for want of use it was lost, and is now not known. Solinus informs us that a person named Marenus Soranus was condemned to torture and death, for having incidentally pro- nounced it. And you no doubt remember the pas- sage in Lucan, that the name of Demogorgon, which the Gentiles had given to the Supreme God, was considered so ineffable, that it was believed the whole earth would tremble if that name were uttered. In fact, the sorceress Erito, to command the obedience of evil spirits, threatens to pronounce this terrible name, as the most powerful charm, which would shake hell itself from its very foun- dation. This, however, in regard to the Egyptians, re- quires a further explanation. Their principal gods were many, and it would lead us much too far from our present subject to speak of them all ; I shall, therefore, confine my observations to a few of the principal ; to those, indeed, whose images or names often occur in the different legends, as 124 LECTURE IV. the protectors of the several sovereigns, or con- nected with the names of private individuals. One leading observation, however, I think my- self justified in making, and that is, that we are not to borrow from the Greeks our notions of the Egyptian deities, because the Greeks, either through pride or ignorance, or both, endeavoured to find some kind of similarity between the Egyp- tian gods and goddesses, and their own, when, in point of fact, there is not the least degree of simi- larity between them. The Egyptian gods were originally but the representation of the several attributes of the Deity; such as his truth, his jus- tice, his mercy, his omnipotence, his power of cre- ation, and his power of destruction, all expressed symbohcally, under the signs of those objects which were thought either to possess some great power, or exhibit a remarkable degi^ee of strength, affec- tion, good-nature, impartiahty, and the hke ; al- though, perhaps, in progress of time, and after the lapse of ages, the ignorant people might have taken them as different distinct beings, actually existing. For it appears to me as clear as possible, that the inventor of the Egyptian theogony admitted and held out but one God, who governed the world by means of his several attributes. In the descrip- tion, therefore, that I shall give you of some of the principal gods and goddesses of the Egyptian Pan- theon, you will always find, that they were but a representation of the attributes, the Demiurgos of this Supreme Being, infinite and omnipotent, the LECTURE IV. 125 Creator of every thing, the merciful but just avenger of wrongs, whose power continued to be felt by the soul of man, even after death. On the con- trary, in the Grecian system the attributes were converted into distinct deities, that no longer ap- peared to be derived from Jupiter, the supreme god, but exercising distinct and independent func- tions of their own. Thus Horace, after describing Jupiter, observes : Proximas illi tamen occupavit Pallas honores. This Demiurgos of the Egyptians, this supreme god, the god creator of the world, was Ammon ; he was also called Ammon-re, the same as the Zeu? of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Latins. The Egyp- tians believed him to have been the Spirit which pervades all things ; the creating Spirit which brought to light all things. He was the god of the Ethiopians and Egyptians, who carried his name and his worship, by their emigration, into Lybia, from the most remote antiquity. The principal places in which he was most particularly wor- shipped were, the city of Meroe, in Ethiopia, the Oasis, in Lybia, and the cities of Thebes and Memphis, in Egypt. His images cover the magnifi- cent monuments of this ancient city, which, in the Egyptian theology, was called the city of Ammon, which the Greeks have faithfully translated by Di- ospolis, that is, the city of Zevg, or Jupiter. It is, in fact, to Ammon, or Ammon-re, that the principal re- 126 LECTURE IV. ligious buildings of Thebes are dedicated. His image lies on the Pyramidion, that is, the top of the largest obelisks, such as those of Louqsor and Kar- nac, as well as those superb monuments, the work of the earliest Pharaohs, which the Pvomans carried to Italy. The basso rehevos still existing, both inside and outside the walls, and round the co- lumns of the temples and palaces of Thebes, repre- sent, in some instances, this god in the act of re- ceiving the prayers and offerings of the Egyptian sovereigns ; in others, the Pharaohs themselves, who are presented to him either by the god Phre alone, which is the sun ; or by the god Phre and another god, representing the power of Ammon over his enemies, which the Greeks have compared to their Mars. On other occasions he is exhibited as presenting the Egyptian heroes with the sign of divine life, and occasionally welcoming the victori- ous princes, who are leading before his throne the prisoners they have made, to pay him the proper homage of adoration. It is for this reason that, amongst their titles, the Pharaohs have assumed that of child of Ammon, beloved, approved, or puri- fied by Ammon ; as we shall hereafter see. The name of this god is represented in several ways; first, phonetically, ^Table 4, fig. 1.^ in which the first three signs preceding the image of the god, are letters speUing Adih, leaving out, as usual, the intermediate vowel. Sometimes even the middle letter, that is, the M, is left out, which seems, very anciently, to have been pronounced LECTURE IV. 127 Amen, or Emon. The second mode of exhibiting his name is figuratively, that is, representing simply the image of the god, without any other sign [^fig. 2.^ The third mode is symbolically, and this is done either by a human figure, having the head of a ram, or simply by a ram, holding between his horns a circle, or the image of the sun [[fig. 3.'2 Or, lastly, by an obehsk, [[fig. 4.] which, being the generic emblem of the Deity, is particularly applied to Ammon, the chief of all the gods. Under the form and vdth the attributes of a ram, he obtained the name of Neb, CnepJi, CuoiipMs, and, by abbre- viation, Nef. He was then considered as one of the modifications, or rather an emanation, of the great Demiurges, the primitive cause of all moral and physical blessings. He was then called the good genius ; the male origin of all things ; the spirit which, by mixing itself in all its parts, ani- mated and perpetuated the world. For this rea- son, in some inscriptions he is represented as pre- siding over the immdation of the Nile, because this phenomenon, to which Egypt owed all its gi'eat- ness and prosperity, was considered as a special benefit of the good genius. Sometimes we find Cnouphis, as the good genius, represented by a serpent, a very large reptile, with a beard, which the Greeks called Agathodgemon. The worship of this god seems to have been prin- cipally established in the Thebaid, that part of Egypt which was most anciently inhabited. It is to Cnouphis that the great temple at Esne is dedi- 128 LECTURE IV. cated, where the image of this god is seen engraved on the walls and the different columns, receiving the homage and adoration of the sovereigns of Egypt. The small but elegant temple of Elephan- tina was equally consecrated to this god by one of the most illustrious of the Pharaohs, Amenophis II. son and successor of Thouthmosis, who lived nearly 1800 years before our sera, according to the com- mon computation. This temple, mentioned by Strabo, is still in existence, and almost untouched. The several basso relievos exhibit Amenophis some- times alone ; at others, followed by his queen, Taia, presenting her rich offerings before the symbolical arch ; there welcomed by the god, who receives him in his arms ; and, further on, presenting him to the other gods of his family, who are equally gracious towards this Pharaoh. But you will remember, that whether phoneti- cally, figuratively, or symbolically, the name of this god Ammon may be exhibited, the meaning and expression of the sign or signs, is always the same, explaining fully the names of the several forms or modifications under which he was worshipped, as Ammon, Ammon-re, Nub, or Mendes. Another gi-eat personage is the god Phtha, or Ptha, whom the Greeks have compared to Vul- can, but who is a very superior being to this black- smith of the gods of mythology. The Phtha of the Egyptians was another emanation of the Demi- urgos ; he was a god to whom the priests attri- buted the organization of the world, and, conse- LEG TU RE IV. 129 quently, the invention of philosophy, the science which exhibits the laws and conditions of the very nature he had organized. He is always represented together with the goddess Neith, who was another emanation or attribute of Ammon, and one of the regular companions of the gi'eat Demiiu-gos. The god Phtha was considered as the founder of the dynasties of Egypt, and the Pharaohs had conse- crated to him the royal city of Memphis, the se- cond capital of the empire, where he had a magni- ficent temple superbly embellished, in which the grand ceremony of the inauguration or installation of the Egyptian kings was splendidly performed ; and he was also considered as their protector, by the titles they had assumed of "Beloved by Phtha," " Approved by Phtha," and the hke. His name, like those of the other gods and god- desses, was represented phonetically, figuratively, and symbolically. Phonetically [^fig. 5.^ it was spelt Pt/i, or Phth, leaving out the intermediate A ; for the square is a P, the half circle T, and the chain is also a T. Figuratively, by the image under which he was seen in his temple [^fig. 6.]] ; and symbolically, by the figure of a Kilometer, followed by something like the image of the god [fig. 7]]. As he was considered the inventor of philosophy, you will have no difficulty in under- standing why the Nilometer had been selected for the symbol of this deity. He sometimes, under a new form, assumes the surname of Socari, and then he is looked upon as the director of the destiny of the K 130 LECTURE IV. souls of the dead, who, according to their merit, are to be distributed in the thirty-two supreme re- gions, of which I shall say more hereafter. It is for this reason we always find his image among the funeral rites, in the royal catacombs, and on the engi*avings and paintings which adorn the boxes or coffins, as well as the envelopes of the mummies. Under this form, his phonetic name is spelt Cfig. 8.]] Scri, that is, Socri, or Socari, for the broken lines are an S ; the vase with the ring, a K ; the mouth an R ; the two perpendicular lines an I ; and the remaining figure is simply a figura- tive character. His figurative name [|fig. 9.]] re- presents him with a peculiar head-dress, placed over the horns of a ram, and holding in his hand a whip ; these two last emblems, or characteristics, he has derived from his father, Amon Nub, of whose nature he partakes, and, therefore, exhibits his attributes. And, lastly, symbolically, he ap- pears either under the human form, with the head of a hawk, or [|fig. 10.]] under the simple image of this bird, holding an emblematical head-dress, not much dissimilar from that of his figurative representation. As Ammon was the supreme deity, the creator of the world, the spirit which animates the whole nature, both male and female, the Egyptians, having considered Cneph, or Cnouphis, as the male emanation of this great Demiurgos, imagined a second emanation, which should represent the LECTURE IV. 131 female principle of productive nature. This was the goddess Neith, who, together with Cnouphis, formed but one single being with the great Demi- urgos, who had created and organised the whole. This goddess occupied the superior part of the hea- vens, inseparable from the first principle, and was considered also as presiding over the moral attri- butes of the mind. Hence wisdom, philosophy, and military tactics, were departments that had been attributed to her, and this consideration persuaded the Greeks to look upon her as their Minerva, who was equally the protectress of wise men and war- riors. It was before her colossal statues and images that, in the legends engraved on the columns of the magnificent temples dedicated to her worship, the victorious Pharaohs are perceived in the act of striking a confused group of prisoners, who lift up their hands in a supplicating manner. The fiirst seat of the worship of this deity was in the city of Sais, in Lower Egypt, where there was a college of priests, and a magnificent temple. The inscription which decorated this sanctuary gave a most sublime idea of the creating power of nature. " I am all that has been, all that is, all that will be. No mortal has ever raised the veil which conceals me ; and the fruit I have produced is the sun !" Such is the interpretation given by M. Champollion, of the hieroglyphics that com- pose it. I have not been able to see the inscription. The goddess Neith was symbolically represented K 2 132 LECTURE IV. by a vulture [[fig. 2.^, the emblem of the female principle of the creation, and consequently of maternity in general. This arose from an idle notion the primitive Egyptians had, that amongst the vultures there was no male bird. Her phonetic name [[fig. 12.[] consists of four characters. The waiving line an N, the two feathers an E, or I, the half circle a T, followed by the image of a goddess. Hitherto we have seen the god Ammon Cnouphis, and his son, the god Phtha, occupying the first rank among the mystical persons of the Egyptian theology ; because, as we have observed, the god- dess Neith, whow as a second emanation of Ammon, formed in reality but one and the same being with the first principle, from which she had emanated. Ammon and Phtha governed and presided over the intellectual w^orld, and the world above ; but of the material or physical world, the government belonged to another god, not less ancient than the other two. He was considered as the soul of nature, the eye of the world, and the son of Phtha, the active intelligence which had organised the universe. He was no less a personage than the sun, the "HXioc of the Greeks, and in the Egyptian language was called Re, or Ri. The priests de- scribed him as one of the earliest kings, and the successor of his father in the government of Egypt, and, like him, the special protector of the sove- reigns, whom adulation regarded as members belonging to the family of this god. In conse- quence of this belief, all the Egyptian kings, from LECTURE IV. 133 the earliest Pharaohs to the last of the Roman emperors, adopted, in the legends consecrated to their honour, the pompous titles of offspring of the sun, son of the sun, king like the sun of all inferior and superior regions, and the like. They had, besides, consecrated to this god, the city of Helio- polis ; and thus each of the four principal cities of the empire, Thebes, INIemphis, Sais, and Heliopolis was under the special protection of one of the four great deities Ammon Cnouphis, Phtha, Neith, and Phre, or Re. The city of Heliopolis, which, in the Egyptian language, was called the city of Ow, was situated a little to the north of Memphis, and was one of the most extensive cities of Egypt, during the reign of the Pharaohs, and so adorned by monu- ments, as to be reckoned among the first sacred cities of the kingdom. The temple dedicated to Re, was a magnificent building, having in front an avenue of Sphinxes, so celebrated in history, and adorned by several obelisks, raised by the order of Sethosis Rameses, 1900 years before Christ. By means of lakes and canals, the town, though built upon an artificial eminence, communicated with the Nile ; and during the beautiful ages of the Egyp- tian monarchy, their priests and learned men acquired and taught the elements of learning within the precincts of its temples. It was there that, after the lapse of time, the degenerate de- scendants of the same Egj^tians, communicated to the wise men and lawgivers of Greece, the 134- LECTURE IV. ancient documents, and the principles already cor- rupted by the influence of foreign invasion, and polluted by ignorance and superstition. At the time of Strabo, who visited this town soon after the death of our Saviour, they still shewed the apartments in which, four centuries before, Eu- doxus and Plato had laboured to learn the philo- sophy of Egypt. The name of this god Re, is represented in all the three usual ways, that is, phonetically, figura- tively, and symbolically. Phonetically, by the mouth and the arms [[fig. 13.]] which spell Ra, or Re, or by a circle and the perpendicular line [[fig. 14.]] which are but syno- nymes of the two former signs. Figuratively, it exhibited the image of the god, as he was seen in the temple, sometimes with the head of a hawk, simply surmounted by a globe Cfig. 15.]], the symbol of the sun ; and at other times having the addition of a serpent, called Uroeus [[fig. 16.]], which, as you know, was another emblem of the supreme power ; and symbolically []fig. 17.]] we find him represented by these same attributes of the globe and serpent, without any farther addition. If we are to beheve Horapollo, the Egyptians had given to this god the head of a hawk, because they believed this bird to be very prolific, and long- lived, two qualifications admirably suiting the nature of the sun. They thought, besides, that this bird, by an unknown power peculiar to itself, always held his LECTURE IV. 135 eyes directed to the sun, which for this reason was' represented in the temple of Hieracomorphe, under the image of a hawk. This bird, in fact, seems to have been the emblem of many gods, for we find not only the god Phre, but even Phtha Sokaris, often represented under the human form, with the head of this bird. Occasionally we also meet with another symbo- lical representation of this god Re, and that is a sphynx, which was considered as the emblem both of strength and prudence. The first of these qua- lities was expressed by its shewing the body of a lion ; the second by its having the human head. Another great deity, which I must introduce to your acquaintance, is a goddess who seems to have performed several employments in the organization of the universe. Her name is Sate. As she is said to be the daughter of the sun, who was the sovereign of the physical world. Sate seems to have been the protectress of all the Egyptian monarchs, and especially of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dy- nasty, since her image is become a hieroglyphical character, half figurative and half symbolic. This is generally seen amongst the signs forming the mystic titles, or the proenomen of the princes of this illustrious race, which reckons among its members the greatest kings that ever reigned over Egypt ; a Mceres, an Amenophis II., an Ousirei, a Ramses Meiamoun, the grandfather of Ramses Sethosis, so well known by the ancients under the name of Sesostris. In fact, the gi-eatest part of 136 LECTURE IV. the royal legends, engraved on the different build- mgs of Thebes, m honour of the prmces of this dynasty, under whose reign Egypt attained the highest degi'ee of civihzation, power, and glory, are placed under the protection of this goddess. The titles by which she was decorated were not less magnificent than her emblems. " Sate, the living goddess, the daughter of the sun, the queen of the heavens and of the earth, the ruler of the infe- rior region, the protectress of her son, the lord of the world, the king of the three regions, son of the sun, Phtah-men Ousirei." Such are the words surrounding an image of this goddess, who covers with her wings a legend, in which the name and proenomen of the Pharaoh Ousirei is inscribed, dis- covered and published by the indefatigable and un- fortunate Belzoni. These titles, even when unconnected with those that adulation had given to the Pharaohs, are always, the living goddess, the re-establisher, and the benefactress of the inferior region, the ruling deity, like the sun eternal. And here, for this inferior region, you are not to understand either the inferior region of heaven, or the inferior region of the earth, but simply Lower Egj'pt. For this name was given to that portion of the country where the Delta begins, as the appel- lation of superior region was bestowed upon Higher Egypt, or the Thebaid. The intermediate territory was called Middle Egypt. In the " Egyptian Pantheon," and in the first LECTURE IV. 137 edition of the " Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique," M. Champollion exhibited the name of the god- dess Sate, Hke those of all the other Egyptian deities, phonetically, figuratively, and emblema- tically. Her phonetic name is made up by four signs [^Table 4. fig. 18.]] : the straight line with a kind of flower at the top, is an S ; the half circle is a T ; the two feathers an E ; and the last is a figurative character, representing an abridge- ment of her figure. Figuratively, she is exhibited under the image of a woman, bearing the sign of divine life in her hands, and having her head deco- rated with the upper part of the head-dress called the pschent, adorned by two long horns. The figure of this peculiar head-dress is exhibited in Table 4. fig. 23. Another goddess is Sme, called by the Greeks A\r]Biia, answering to Themis, the goddess of jus- tice and truth. These attributes evidently shew her to have been another representation of the in- finite power who continued to influence and act upon the destinies of men, even after death, in a future life ; for we find this goddess almost inva- riably represented on the monuments exhibiting the ceremony of funerals, perpetually leading the soul to the balance, where the deeds and actions of his life were to be weighed, previous to its being introduced to Osiris. The phonetic name of this goddess is spelt by three characters, [[Table 4. fig. 19.^ The first a kind of parallelogram, is an S ; the second, a 138 LECTURE IV. species of sickle, is M ; the third, the extended arm, is an A or an E ; spelling Sme. To these three characters three more are added ; the half circle, the egg, and the image of a female ; the two former mark the gender, the latter the figure or image of this goddess. Figuratively, this god- dess was represented [[fig. 20.]] under the image of a woman, holding the sign of divine life, and having her head decorated with a feather, which is the peculiar distinction of all her images. Lastly, symbohcally, she was exhibited [[fig. 21.]] by the great serpent, who was the emblem of immortality and wisdom. Such is the short account of some of the prin- cipal gods and goddesses, whose names and legends are very often met with among the mins of Egypt, engraved on obehsks, painted on almost every mummy, and mentioned in most MSS. These gods form but a small portion of the Egyptian Theogony ; they hold however, the most impor- tant places in their Pantheon, and such as to enable the generahty of readers to understand the greatest part of the hieroglyphical characters most commonly seen. So far therefore, they may be deemed sufficient to answer our present pm-pose. But as in almost every legend which is connected with the dead, we meet with the representation of another god, whose dominion is principally exercised over the souls of men, I think it better, before I pro- ceed to other topics, to introduce to your acquaint- ance this important personage. He, together with LECTURE IV. 139 his wife, belongs to the second order of the Egyp- tian gods. They both are, no doubt, another representation of the attributes of the great Demi- urgos ; and their names are more famihar to you than any I have mentioned as yet : they are the goddess Isis, and her brother and husband, Osiris. It would occupy too much of our time to give the whole account of them both, of their exploits, of the benefits they conferred upon Egypt, of the persecution and murder of Osiris by Typhon, and the anxiety and labours undergone by Isis, to col- lect his scattered limbs, and to have them buried. This foolish story, which, in progress of time, be- came a legend, was, in the beginning, without the least doubt, a regular fable, recording one of the greatest truths transmitted and preserved by tradi- tion amongst mankind, of the sad event of the fall of man, and of the destruction of the world by the deluge. It would not be diflftcult, if I could possibly enter into more minute detail, to point out the analogy which all the circumstances re- corded in the lives of Isis and Osiris, and the cere- monies which accompanied the mysteries, or festi- vals of these and other deities, had to the events, the memory of which they were originally intended to perpetuate ; the creation of the world, the fall of man, the destruction of mankind by the flood, the preservation of Noah and his family, the unity of God, and the promise he made to that patri- arch ; and, consequently, the necessity of abjimng the worship of idols, which properly constituted 1 140 LECTURE IV. the end of the mysteries, and obtained for them the name of regeneration, and for the initiated themselves the proud appellation of regenerated. Indeed, the elevation of a ship, w^hich formed a prominent feature in the mysteries both of Isis and Ceres, though in progress of time it might have been applied to other purposes, could not originally have a significant reference to any thing else but Noah's preservation in the ark. The innumerable fables which, towards the end of the Theocratic govern- ment, and much more in the after times, had been invented and engrafted on that event, involved the subject in deeper and deeper mystery. But I have no doubt, that in their origin this ceremony had been introduced to commemorate the destruction of mankind by the deluge. The theories which we find existing among the several nations may indeed be varied, but the necessary consequence which must be drawn from seeing the same emblem among the different nations of the globe is evidently this, that not only the Egyptians, but the Chinese, the Japanese, the Persians, the Hindoos, and even the Indians of North and South America, have theories sufficiently circumstantial to evince that they possess a traditional account of the deluge of Noah. Their respective theories are too copious to be cited here ;. they will form the subject of one Lecture, or perhaps of two. I must therefore, for the present, refer those who wish to acquire a full idea on this most interesting subject, to Bryant's System of Mythology, Perron's Zendavesta, Nieu- LECTURE IV. 141 hofF's Voyage to Brazil, Acosta's History of the Indies, Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, and the several papers which have appeared on this subject in the Asiatic Researches, and in the works of Sir W. Jones. In regard to Isis and Osiris, you find their names, like those of the other gods and goddesses, ex- pressed phonetically, figuratively, and symbolically. Phonetically, the name of Isis was exhibited by four characters, [[Table 4. fig. 24, and 25.]] the cup, [[fig. 24.]] or its synonyme, the feather, [[fig. 25.[] either of which stood for an I ; the egg, which was an S ; the half circle, which denoted the feminine gender ; and the throne, the emblem by which the goddess was perpetually designated. Figuratively, she was represented by the image of a woman sitting, holding on her head the circle surrounded by horns, and sometimes in her hand either the sign of divine life, [[fig. 26.[] or a flower of lotus, [[fig. 27. [] And, lastly, symbolically, her repre- sentation was the throne, the half circle, and the egg, as specifying gender ; and sometimes they added to these signs the image of a goddess, [[fig. 28. [] The phonetic exhibition of Osiris, her brother^ and husband, consisted of four signs, or characters, [[fig. 29.[] a sceptre, with the head of a species of wolf, which denotes the vowel O ; the crooked line S ; the oval an R ; the arm an E, or an I, which gives Osj^e, the abbreviation of Osire, or Osiri, His symbolic name was represented by the eye 142 LECTURE IV. and the throne, to which sometimes the hatchet was added, [^fig. 31.)] as the symbohcal sign of the deity, and at other times the abridged figure of the god, as a generic character, [^fig. 32.]] Lastly, his figm*ative name was represented by the image of a god, mostly sitting, bearing on his head the royal pschent, and often in his hand the whip and the sceptre, as he was considered the king of the Amenti j^fig. 30.]] This place, to which the Greeks had given the appellation of Hades, and the Latins of Tartarus, was the place in which the Egyptians supposed the dead to be. It was governed by four genii, the first of whom was the god Amset ; the second, the god Ajn. Osiris was the king who presided over them all ; and we have seen the god Phtha as the ruler of the destinies of the souls of men after they had parted from the body, in order that they might be distributed, ac- cording to their merits, in the thirty-two superior regions. It is for this reason we find the god Thoth a perpetual companion of Osiris, and, after him, the first personage in the Amenti, where he had fixed his residence and his tribunal, to regulate the destinies of the souls in each of their transmigi-a- tions from the body of one man into another. As the first, or, as he is called, celestial TJioth, he was considered an emanation of the first Demi- urges ; and the Egyptians supposed, that, after having assisted him in the work of the creation, he took the human form to enhghten mankind, and LECTURE IV. 143 then retired into the moon to assist the god Pooh in the disposition of the souls of men. For this purpose, they had divided the whole world into three zones. The first was the earth, or the zone of trial; the second was the zone of the air, perpe- tually agitated by winds and storms, and was consi- dered as the zone of temporal punishment ; and the third was the zone of rest and tranquillity, which was above the other two. Again, they had subdivided the first zone, or the earth, into four regions or departments ; the second, or the zone of the air, was divided into two only ; the first of these was subdivided into four regions, and the second into eight, making twelve altogether ; these being added to the four regions of the first zone, made sixteen : and, lastly, the third zone of the tranquil atmosphere contained sixteen more re- gions ; so that the sum total of the regions in which the souls of the dead were to be distributed, was, in fact, thirty-two. According to this principle, they supposed that the god Pooh was the perpetual director ; a sort of king of the souls, who, after having parted from the body, were thrown into the second zone, to be whirled about by the winds through the regions of the air till they were called upon either to return to the first zone, to animate a new body, and to undergo fresh trials, in expiation of their former sins, or to be removed into the third, where the air was perpetually pure and tranquil. It was over these two zones, or divisions of the world, situated 144 LECTURE IV. between the earth and the moon, that the god Pooh exercised the full extent of his power. He had for his^counsel the god Thoth, who presided over that portion of the second or tempestuous zone, which was divided into eight regions, and was only a tem- porary dwelling of the dead. This was, in fact, nothing else but the personification of the grand principle of the immortality of the soul, and the necessity of leading a virtuous life ; since every man was called upon to give a strict account of his past conduct, and, according to the sentence which Osiris pronounced, was doomed to happiness or misery ; for, generally speaking, it seems that the Egyptians had assigned to their principal gods and goddesses most closely connected with their Demiurgos, two different characters ; the one presiding over, or assisting in, the creation of the universe ; the other performing some duties, or exercising some act of authority in the Amenti, as was the case with the god Phtha, the goddess Sme, and others. Indeed, this striking tenet of the Eg^^tian reh- gion wdll appear sufficiently evident from the ac- count of the manner in which the Egj^tians gave a burial to their dead, and of the tenets which had been the cause of the several attendant ceremonies. What I am going to state on the first point, is taken mostly from Diodorus Siculus, who, in de- scribing the cemetery of Memphis, which was the largest and most frequented of any in Egypt, has also given a narrative of the ceremonies which were practised on the occasion. LECTURE IV. 145 " When any person died," says my historian, " the whole of his family, and all his friends, covered their heads with clay, and went about the city lamenting, until the body was buried. In the mean time they abstained from bathing and from wine, scarcely ate any food, nor did they put on rich clothing. The expense of the funerals was conducted on three different scales, which rendered them costly, moderate, or cheap. A talent of silver, or two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, would scarcely defray the expenditure of the first ; the second required twenty minse, or sixty pounds ; and for the third very httle money was sufiftcient. It seems that amongst the Egyptians there were a set of people, who, like our undertakers, took upon themselves the whole service of the funeral for a stipulated sum, which was agreed upon beforehand. Proper persons were then employed to perform their respective opera- tions. The first seems to have been that of the Scribe, whose duty it was to mark out how the dissection was to be made upon the left side of the body. This was executed with a sharp ethiopian stone, by a man called the Dissector, whose oflEice, however, was considered so vile and so degrading, as to oblige him immediately to betake himself to flight, as if he had committed a crime, to escape the pursuit, and, if caught, a severe punishment from the bystanders." *' At the disappearance of the wretched dissector, the embalmers came forward. They were people 14G LECTURE IV. held in high respect, considered as sacred persons, permitted to have a free access to the temples, and to associate with the priests. Their office consisted in removing from the corpse every part that was susceptible of decay, and washing the rest with palm wine and spices ; after this immediate operation, they for more than thirty days applied various kinds of resin, to preserve the body ; and, after having impregnated the whole with myrrh and cinnamon, to give it an agreeable smell, they returned it to his relations so perfectly preserved in every part, that even the hairs of the eyelids and the eyebrows remained undisturbed." Indeed, from all accounts, it seems that the whole appear- ance of the deceased remained so unchanged as to be recognised, not only by his height, and the outline of his figure, but even by the character and expression of his countenance. Nor must we be surprised at this great progress which the Egyptians had made in the art of embalming, for they had the custom of keeping the bodies of their ancestors, in their houses, for generations, and enjoyed the gratification as if of living with them. You remember what Lucian says of having been an eye-witness of these mummies being placed on seats at table, as if they had been hving. But to return. The common place of burial was beyond the lake Ache)'jsia, or Acharejish, which meant the last state, the last condition of man, and from which the poets have imagined the fabulous lake of Acheron. On the borders of this LECTURE IV. 147 lake Acherusia sat a tribunal, composed of forty- two judges, whose office, previous to the dead being permitted to be carried to the cemetery beyond the lake, was to inquire into the whole conduct of his life. If the deceased had died insolvent, they adjudged the corpse to his creditors, which was considered as a mark of dishonour, in order to oblige his rela- tions and friends to redeem it, by raising the neces- sary sums amongst themselves. If he had led a wicked life, they ordered that he should be deprived of solemn burial, and he was consequently carried and thrown into a large ditch made for the pur- pose, to which they gave the appellation of Tartar, on account of the lamentations that this sentence produced among his surviving friends and rela- tions. This is also the origin of the fabulous Tartarus, in which the poets have transferred the lamenta- tions made by the living to the dead themselves who were thrown into it. If no accuser appeared, or if the accusation had proved groundless, the judges decreed that the deceased was entitled to his burial, and his eulo- gium was pronounced amongst the applauses of the bystanders, in which they praised his educa- tion, his religion, his justice, in short, all his virtues, without, however, mentioning any thing about his riches or nobility, both of which were considered as mere gifts of fortune. To carry the corpse to the cemetery, it was L 2 148 LECTURE IV. necessary to cross the lake, and this was done by the means of a boat, in which no one could be admitted without the express order of the judges, and without paying a small sum for the convey- ance. This regulation was so strictly enforced, that the kings themselves were not exempt from its severity. The cemetery was a large plain surrounded by trees, and intersected by canals, to which they had given the appellation of elisout, or elisicens, which means nothing else but rest. And such again is the origin of the poetical Charon and his boat, as well as of the fabulous description of the Elysian Fields. The whole ceremony of the interment seemed to have consisted in depositing the mummy in the excavation made in the rock, or under the sand which covered the whole of the ehsout, to shut up its entrance by a large stone ; then it seems that the relations of the deceased threw three handfuls of sand on the tomb, as a sign to the workmen to fill up the cavity, and then departed, after uttering three several cries, as three distinct farewells. To express, therefore, the circumstance, that the deceased had been honoured with the rites of burial, and with the proper and legitimate lamen- tations of his friends, they exhibited on the legend imprinted on the mummy, or engraved round his tomb, the figiu-e of a horse of the Nile, which the Greeks mistook for a dog, who, by his fidelity and attachment, has deserved to become the symbol of LECTURE I\^ 149 friendship and affection ; and as they at all times wished to add something of their own to the insti- tutions of other nations, in order to express the three cries, or farewells, they represented this same dog as having three different heads. To this emblem, or hieroglyphic, the Egyptians gave the appellation of oms ; and the Greeks, in conse- quence of their mistaking it for a dog, that of Cerher, from the Egyptian Cerlber, a word that means the cry of the tomb, and from which origi- nates the Cerberus of the Grecian mythology. The manner in which these religious doctrines were exhibited in hieroglyphics, and how they were further distorted by the Greeks, will form the subject of our next Lecture. LECTURE V. Continuation of the same subject — Exhibition of the mode by which the souls of the dead entered the Amenti — Further ex- amination of hieroglyphics — Explanation of some of the most important grammatical forms — Genders — Number — Verbs — Pronouns — Mixture of hieroglyphics — Legends — Names of individuals — of the Pharaohs — Mystic titles which inva- riably preceded their historical name — Explanation of some most commonly used — Coincidence of the Egyptian inscrip- tions with the names of some of the kings mentioned in the Bible. We concluded our last Lecture with mentioning the ceremonies practised by the Egyptians in the burial of their dead ; and I deferred to this Lec- ture the exhibition of the hieroglyphics connected with these ceremonies. I now offer to your in- spection a curious picture, [[Table 5.]] representing the trial and judgment which the Egyptians sup- posed the soul of a man to undergo, before he was allowed to enter the region of rest and happiness. It is taken from a curious MS. existing in the Vatican library, of which Angelo Mai, a Milanese, has given a description. Although I have not been able to obtain the original work, yet in Ger- man there is a translation by Louis Bachmann, in LECTURE V. 151 three distinct numbers, one of which I have seen. It bears the title of " Die Agyptischen Papyrus der Vaticanischen Bibhothek, — aus dem Itahaenischen des Angelo Mai von Ludwig Baachmann." It was printed at Leipzig, in 1827. The whole scene is represented to take place in the praetorium of the Amenti. The frieze at the top contains a continued series of different em- blems, amongst which the most prominent is the Urseus, the serpent who was considered as the symbol of the goddess Sme, or Tme, preceded or followed by the feather, which is also another or- nament, or attribute, of this same goddess. For this is the place where she, as the goddess of truth, must exclusively preside. She seems herself to stand in the middle, with her arms extended, covering two hieroglyphical legends, exhibiting the symbols of the sun and of the moon, to denote the Providence that rules over the universe. To the right and left of this architrave we find the god Thoth, under the shape of a cynocephalus, or an ape : he is also often called Apis, or Ap. In ther chapel we observe Osiris sitting on a throne, with all the symbols that belong to him, — the whip and the sceptre, to denote his power over time ; the pschent, or the royal helmet, fr'om the front of which issues the serpent, the emblem of eternity and wisdom, and on which is engraved the symbol of Phre, to signify his prudence and his justice. Over his head we have an inscription in hieroglyphical characters, which contains his titles. 152 LECTURE V. and the meaning of whicli seems to be, " Osiris, the beneficent god ; lord of the Uving, the supreme god, everlasting lord ; the ruler of the inferior region. King of the gods." Before him stands a basket, out of which issues a stick, or a pole, on which hangs the skin of a panther, which per- suaded the Greeks to assimilate him to their Bac- chus. Before this chapel there is an altar, on which lies an offering of bread, fruit, and flowers of the lotus, and by its side stand two bunches of the same plant, not yet open. They were considered as containing the water of the Nile, without which no sacrifice or libation could be made. On a pedestal before this altar rests a horse of the Nile, which the Egyptians called 0ms, the faithful guardian of all burial places, and which the Greeks have transformed into their Cerberus. Over its head there is an inscription in hierogly- phical characters, the import of which is, " Oms, the ruler of the inferior region ;" and just above him there is a god called Sciai, and his wife Ran- nety as it appears from the phonetic characters over their heads ; they both were attendants on Osiris. Further back on the sceptre of Osiris is seen a small figure in a sitting posture holding a finger on his lips, to whom the Greeks have given the appellation of Sigalio?i, the Harj)ocrates of the Romans. In the opposite comer we have a group of three LECTURE V. 153 persons. The first is the goddess Sme : she ap- pears witli all the attributes of her office and power ; the long sceptre in her right hand, and the sign of divine life in her left, to signify, that through her alone a man can pass to immortality and happi- ness ; and lastly, she has her head surrounded by a sort of diadem, surmounted by a feather, her peculiar distinction ; and over it we find the legend which characterises her as " Sme, the goddess of truth, the daughter of the sun, for ever living, and benevolent, ruler of the inferior region." On account of her double character, the Greeks have compared this goddess to Themis and Perse- phone, that is, Proserpine. As the goddess of justice she is Themis, as a companion of Osiris, and queen of the Amenti, she is Persephone. Next to Sme, we find another figure in the com- mon dress of the Egyptians, who evidently is the person of the deceased. His name is engraved over his head, and signifies " the Osirian, Nesi- mandu deceased, son of Niiahendi deceased ;" and next to this legend there is another, which seems to be a petition which he presents to the goddess Sme, entreating the permission of being allowed to enter the place of rest and tranquillity. The last figure I do not exactly know how to describe, for I cannot exactly make her out. She seems, however, to be an attendant of Sme, as if introducing Nesimandu to her. The middle part of this curious monument is occupied by a large balance. In one scale there 154 LECTURE V. is an urn, containing the actions of the life of Nesimandu, in the other, by way of weight, the image of Sme, the goddess of truth. The scale on which lies the um, is attended by Horus, whose symbolical name is engi'aved over his head. The other, which contains the image of the goddess, is watched over by Anubis. Above his head there is an inscription, of which I cannot entirely make out the meaning ; but from what I can make out, it appears to be " a declaration by Anubis, that these are the proofs of the life and actions of Nesimandu, deceased." In front of the balance we have the god Thoth, holding a tablet in his left hand, on which he notes clown with a reed which he has in his right, the result of the weighing of the life and actions of Nesimandu, approving of the result, and recom- mending that he might be introduced to Osiris. The middle compartment represents two rows, containing forty-two figures, in two distinct lines of twenty-one each. They are the emblematical figures of the forty-two judges, who upon earth tried the merits and the demerits of every dead person, to see whether he deserved the distinction of a burial. This trial, which even kings were obliged to undergo, formed the most remarkable feature in the Egyptian religious code, and, no doubt, arose fi*om the belief, that in the next world, the same ceremony took place, before the soul of the dead was allowed to be presented to Osiris, in order that he might, accorchng to the life he had led, be LECTURE V. 155 sent to the appropriated region, of gi'eater or less happiness or misery. To signify that the judges were perfectly im- partial, and that the deceased was tried according to the strictest rules of justice, the judges were represented under the human form, with the heads of the different animals which were the symbolical characters of the several gods or goddesses ; or, in other and more appropriate expressions, the repre- sentation of the several attributes and emanations of the gi'eat Demiurgos. To render the whole picture more striking, it seems as if the sentence of the forty-two judges was carried down to the goddess Sme by her attend- ant, while she received the petition of Nesimandu at the time that the god Thoth was registering, on the tablets of fate, the result of the weighing, which Horus and Anubis had made of the whole of his life, against the image of the goddess of Truth. The whole of this representation seems, no doubt, to have been executed in honour of Nesi- mandu, as a proof of his having been admitted to the funeral honours which the Egyptians granted to all persons who had led a virtuous life. The MS. to which this curious drawing is attached, is now in the Vatican library ; and I have no doubt, that if it were made out, most of its contents would turn out to be the recital of the actions of Nesi- mandu, or, at least, something concerning him. I am led to this conclusion by seeing over his head, engraved in hieroglyphical characters, not only his 1 156 LECTURE V. name, but also that of his father Nuabendi ; a circumstance which, according to my opinion, evidently proves, that he is the hero of the repre- sentation, the object of which is to praise him. Perhaps it may be asked, whether any monu- ment or inscription exists, in which the scale is observed to preponderate on the opposite side, that is, to exhibit an instance of a bad life in the deceased ; and if so, what were the marks added to such an exhibition, to shew the disapprobation of society ? To the first of these questions I answer, that monuments of this sort are very seldom to be met with, though I have no doubt that they were not uncommon. It would be impossible to conceive that the whole of the Egyptian nation was so moral and correct, as not occasionally to exhibit individuals whose immoral conduct deserved repro- bation and punishment. These, we know, were deprived of religious burials,' and their bodies cast into pits, or disposed of in a manner different from that which was generally practised. Now as the whole of this ceremony was intended to inculcate the necessity of a virtuous life, by the certainty of a future existence of reward or punish- ment, we have a right to suppose, that, for the sake of example, exhibitions of this sort must have existed,bywhich the people might see that the denial of brurial in this world was followed up by some punishment in the Amenti. Contrary to our ex- pectation, however, it seems that monuments of LECTURE V. 157 this sort are very rare ; for M. Champollion told Captain Sabine, from whom I received the informa- tion, that, among the great numbers of pictures and MSS. he had examined, he had seen only one monument in which the urn, containing the soul or actions of the deceased, could not balance the weight of the image of Sme. In consequence of this deficiency, on a flight of stairs which formed the communication between the Amenti and the world, the deceased was represented under the form of a dog, with his tail between his legs, running away from the god Anubis, who was pursuing and driving him back again into the world. This re- presentation confirms the opinion, that the Egyp- tians admitted the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, and believed that the souls of men, for particular crimes, were condemned to return to life under the shape of some animal, to atone for their past sins. As no legend was attached to this extraordinary picture, M. Champollion could not ascertain either the name of the deceased, or the offence he had committed. From other circumstances, however, connected with this monument, he is of opinion that the deceased was so punished for the crime of high treason, a crime which, in every civilized country, has been, and very properly too, consi- dered of the most heinous and profligate nature, destructive of the very foundation of society, and, therefore chastised, not only in this world, but in the next. To a certain extent, such seems to 158 LECTURE V, be the doctrine of the law of England to this mo- ment. Upon the whole, it seems evident that the Egyp- tian Amenti has been the prototype and the origin of the Hades of the Greeks, and the Tartarus of the Latins. Orpheus, who had been initiated in all the secrets of the mysteries of Egypt, carried into Greece these mysteries, and the Greeks soon so altered the whole, as to render it no longer recog- nisable. Osiris became Pluto ; Sme, Persephone ; Oms, Cerberus; Thoth, Mercurius Psychopompos ; Horus, Apis, and Anubis the three infernal judges, Minos, ^acus, and Rhadamanthus. To conclude the whole, the symbolical heads of the different animals under which the forty-two judges were represented, being deprived of their primitive and symbolical meaning, were changed into real mon- sters, the Chimeras, the Harpies, the Gorgons, and other such unnatural and horrible things, with which they peopled their fantastic hell ; and thus the Amenti of the Egyptians, as indeed the greatest part, if not the whole of their religion, became, in the hands of the Greeks and Romans a compound of fables and absurdities. Such is the account I have to offer with regard to the leading points of the Egyptian Amenti. We must now pass on to consider another sort of characters, or signs, which may be called, as indeed they are, grammatical forms. They often occur in the different legends, and without a previous ex- planation their meaning is not easily understood. LECTURE V. 159 I shall exhibit some of the most important. They turn mostly upon genders, the formation of the plural, on some of the pronouns, and the verbs. And it is indeed surprising to see with what nicety and care the Egyptians seem to have marked all the possible combinations of the grammar, and to have preserved, in writing hieroglyphics, all the rules of syntax which their language required. This, as you will readily conceive, is not the most attractive part of the hieroglyphics. I will give you a few specimens, which will enable you to see how these points were managed by the Egyptians. The figures that were made use of, have a reference to words in the Coptic language ; some of these figures I will exhibit, and mention the words to which they refer. If you will favour me with a little of your attention, the whole will be, I hope, intelligible. The marks of the genders are, — a square, either plain, CTab. 6. fig. 1.'2 or striated, C;fig. 2.;] for the masculine, and half a circle, [[fig. 3.]] for the femi- nine. The square, in Coptic, is called Pe, and stands for the letter P. The half-circle is called 2V, and stands for the letter T. They both are considered as articles. Although, in the spoken language, they are both put before the noun, yet, in writing, the feminine article, that is, the half circle, is generally noted after the noun. For instance, the word s/te, or se, means daugh- ter ; and if we wish -to add to it the article te, we should say ts/w, or fse, that is, t/ie (laughter. IGO LECTURE V. Again, the word sen, means sister ; and with the addition of the article we have tsen, that is, the sister. In the same way mou signifies mother ; and with the addition of the article we have tmou, the mother. But in writing hieroglyphics, we must put the half circle at the end, and write, not tsen, but sent, — not tmou, but moid, — not tshe, but shet. The plural, as I hope you remember, is inva- riably expressed by a simple repetition of the units ; [^fig. 4.]] to these units sometimes is added the figiu-e of a horn, [|fig. 5.^ or of a quail, [|fig. 6.)] all of which stand for the syllable none, or oue, which is the termination added to the plural. For in- stance, the word sote7i signifies hing ; and by the addition of none we have sotenoue kings, — noyte, god ; noytenoue, gods ; and the like. Sometimes we also find this plural number marked by the undulating line, either in its simple form of one line, [Jag. 7.]] or in the double form of two lines, [|fig. 8.^ which is, in fact, an abbre\dation of the syllable none ; for the undulating line, either in simple or double form, stands for the letter N. In regard to the genders, it seems that the Egyptians expressed them by employing the pro- nouns of him, or of her ; and these pronouns were represented by the figure of an undulating line over a serpent, [[fig. 9.^ or over a broken line, [[fig. 10.[] In the first instance, [[fig. 9.[] the group represented the pronoun his, or of him, which, in Coptic, was nef or nev, for these two letters, F and V, being perpetually confused, were expressed by the LECTURE V. IGl same hieroglyphic. In the second instance, [^fig. lOJ the group stood for the pronoun hers, or of her, which in Coptic was called nes. Thus, for ex- ample, if to the word tmou, which, as we have just observed, signifies the mother, we add eph, which is an abbreviation of the genitive case of the pro- noun neph, we shall have the word tmoueph, or tmouph, which means, the mother of him ; and, on the other hand, by adding es, which is an abbre- viation of the pronoun nes, we shall have tmoues, or tmous, to signify the mother of her. Now the same rule stands good in regard to writing hiero- glyphics. If to the vulture, which is the symbol- ical character for mou, mother, we add the serpent, [[fig. 11.)] which stands for the letter F, and is there- fore an abbreviation of the pronoun nef, we shall have the group expressing, phonetically, mouph, that is, mother of him, while, by adding the broken line, [[fig. 12.]] we change the masculine into the feminine gender, and read the group moics, that is, mother of her. Again, the chenalopex, that is the goose, or the egg, are the phonetic hieroglyphics expressing the word child, — for both of them represent the letter S, which is an abbreviation of the word se, or tse, son, child. Therefore, if to the bird or the egg we add the figure of the serpent, [[fig. 14.[] or the broken line, [[fig. 15.[] we shall have, in the first instance, the group signifying son of him, or his son ; and, in the second, son of her, or her son. Again, the word father is represented phoneti- M 162 LECTURE V. cally, [[fig. 30.;] by the half drcle, which is a T ; by the serpent, which is U, or ou ; and by the per- pendicular line, E. These make up the word tone, tuye, from the Egyptian verb taye, to beget. By adding, therefore, to these signs, either a second serpent, as in fig. 31. or a broken line, as in fig. 32. we shall have in one group [[fig. 31.;] the phrase expres3ing/«//ijc is evidently a mistake, and it ought to be read Qicea^rjc. QKza^inQ, in fact, is a mere alteration of the Egyptian word ottk^juh, (oukame,) which means black, on account of the black colour of its sediment. I am ignorant of the real origin of the term Nile ; Diodorus indeed, asserts that this river re- ceived such an appellation from NaXoc, a king of A a 354 LECTURE X. Egypt ; but in the chronological canon of Manetho there is no Egyptian sovereign who bore this name. In the catalogue however, [of the kings of Thebes, preserved by Eratosthenes, we find that the thirty- sixth Thehcm king was called Phruron, or Nilus. The custom of the Egyptian kings to have several names, was no doubt very common, and very an- cient ; but as Eratosthenes does not mention that this monarch gave his name to the Nile, I know not whether the simple authority of Diodorus be sufficient to establish the fact. To derive it from the Hebrew language, as some of our modern writers have pretended, appears to me an ingenious dream ; and between modern and ancient specu- lations, I rather prefer the report of Diodorus. It seems however most certain, as M. Cham- pollion has properly observed, that the ancient Egyptians gave to the Nile the name of iA.po, (iaro,) which means river. It is also certain that the Jews adopted this name of river, as it is found in chap, xxvii. 12. of Isaiah, and in chap. xxix. 3. of Ezekiel. And it also appears that up to the thirteenth century of our era, the Copts still dis- tinguished the Nile by the appellation of iaro, or phiaro. Under the Greeks and Romans, Egypt was di- vided into three different parts, the Delta, or Lower Egypt ; the Heptanomides, or Middle Egypt ; and the Thehaide, or Higher Egypt. It is reasonable to suppose that this division is not to be dated from the time of the Pharaohs, as it is not mentioned by LECTURE X. 355 Herodotus. But it seems certain, that, even during the reign of these princes, the country was divided into a great number of small provinces, each of which the Greeks called ISiofxoi, and the Egyptians neocy, Pthosch. Diodorus asserts, that it was Sethosis Ramesses, son of Amenophis III. who divided Egypt into Nome, at the time that he me- ditated the conquests of Asia and Africa. Being aware that the execution of these vast projects required a long absence, and wishing that his people should enjoy the benefit of a wise and well directed administration of justice, he divided his kingdom, or rather the whole of Egypt, into thirty-six small provinces, in order that the governors of each of these provinces might more easily attend to the execution of the laws. According to this account of Diodorus, it seems that Sethosis Ramesses was the author of the first division of Egypt into provinces. But this is evi- dently a mistake. For it would be difficult to sup- pose that the primitive Pharaohs could have carried on the administration of justice, and the affairs of government, without the appointment of officers and ministers who could see the orders of the monarch executed in the different departments of the state, and in the various cities and villages of the kingdom. The necessity of appointing these ministers or governors evidently proves a divi- sion of land, to prevent the authority of each of them from encroaching on the authority of the other ; and there is even reason to suppose that A a 2 356 LECTURE X. such was the case, and that these governments or provinces were, in fact, six and thirty. We learn from Strabo, that this division was made in the primitive times of the monarchy, perhaps the period of the hieratic government. In speaking of the Labyrinth, he says, " This extraordinary building contained as many courts as there were nomes ; and a little after he mentions the number of these nomes to have been exactly thirty-six." And indeed, if we were to adopt the opinion of the ancient writers who have spoken of the Labyrinth, we might be led to suppose that this superb build- ing had been raised to serve as a point of union to all the governors of the thirty-six nomes, when- ever the importance of affairs required that they should assemble together. It was, in fact, situated in the very centre of these nomes, eighteen of which lay on its northern, and eighteen on its southern side. Manetho relates, that it had been raised by order of the Pharaoh Lamaris, or Labaris, who gave to this monument his own name, and who lived 1900 years before Sethosis, that is, more than 3000 years before Christ. Be this as it may, one certain conclusion we may draw from these accounts of Strabo and Manetho, that the division of Egypt into thirty-six nomes, or Pthosch, was looked upon by the Egyptians as an institution of their first monarchs, much ante- rior to the time of Sethosis Ramesses, as is asserted by Diodorus. Such is the short account of this extraordinary LECTURE X. 357 country, in regard to its topography : and I must now proceed to consider the alterations which the Greeks made in the ancient terms, and the mode by which the old nomenclature has been recovered ; but before I do so, it is necessary that I should make some preliminary observations. The name of this country awakens in the mind of the scholar recollections of a peculiar nature, as it belongs to the most memorable epochs recorded by history. It has been the cradle of all the arts and all the sciences ; and whilst many of the Ori- ental, and almost all the European nations, were plunged into ignorance and barbarism, Egypt, having reached the height of civilization, splen- dour, and glory, boasted of possessing the benefit of a wise system of legislation, and numerous col- leges of priests, whose duty it was to watch over the improvement of knowledge, and the happiness of the people. Their institution, it may be said, must have been coeval with the establishment of the monarchy, and their progress so rapid and so extensive, as to have surpassed most, if not all the other nations of the globe. In fact, when under the reign of Psammeitus, the Egyptian empire, which many centuries before had been shaken and harassed by the repeated incursions of the Arabians and the Ethiopians, was at last overturned by Cam- byses, the whole of Europe could scarcely ex- hibit the first fruit of an incipient civilization. Up to that period, that celebrated country was, and from time immemorial had been, governed by 358 LECTURE X. several dynasties of Pharaohs, who, by the wisdom of their laws, and the brilliancy of their conquests, had rendered the people familiar with every spe- cies of glory. But at this period, overcome by a conqueror who, by destroying its religious and political institutions, took from the nation every possible superiority ; subdued afterwards by Alex- ander ; but arising after his death to a new life under the Ptolemies ; bending under the weight of the Roman power ; in succeeding time conquered by the Arabians, and at last, fallen under the yoke of the ignorant nation which still keeps them in chains; this country of Egypt has, at different periods, been the theatre on which knowledge and ignorance, happiness and misery, civilization and barbarism, have alternately made their appearance. Nothing therefore, can be more interesting than the full investigation of the history of this extra- ordinary nation ; of their customs and their laws ; of their religious as well as political institutions, during the ages of their prosperity. These ages have long since passed by, and are now lost in the obscurity of time ; but this very antiquity seems to attach something so wonderful and extraordi- nary to the very existence of this people, as to lessen in some respect, the admiration and interest which they ought to excite. But the gigantic remains which still exist at Karnac, at Louqsor, at Esne, at Dendera, in short all over the land of Egypt, and the less bulky, though perhaps not less striking monuments which the greedy hand LECTURE X. 359 of travellers or despotism has caused to be re- moved to Europe, will attest to future ages, that the Greek and Latin authors, who have given so alluring a description of the knowledge, civiliza- tion, and power of the old Egyptians, far from exhibiting an exaggerated account, have in fact told us much less than the truth. This assertion will require no other proof than the simple statement of a few historical facts, which the Greeks themselves have transmitted to us. By Strabo we are informed, that the ancient kings of Egypt took every precaution to prevent foreigners and strangers from visiting the interior of their empire ; because, as he says, they were satisfied with their own opulence. It was the rigorous execution of this political measure which threw into the hands of the Phoenicians the great- est part of the maritime commerce of Egypt. This same account is confirmed by Diodorus. " The priests," says he, " who held the first rank, and exercised the first employments of the state, being persuaded that the happiness and prosperity of Egypt depended on the preservation of these cus- toms, which perhaps, they themselves had esta- bhshed, endeavoured, with all their might, to pre- vent the people from having any communication with foreigners." This fundamental maxim of the Egyptian policy seems, at one time, to have been generally adopted by all the Orientals, and is still most carefully enforced in China and Japan. 3G0 LECTURE X. Much has been said, and much still may be said, against such a regulation. A free intercourse with foreigners and strangers may, and does, no doubt, produce a gi'eater degree of civilization, and en- courages the progress of commerce. It may also be of use to eradicate from amongst the people some of the prejudices arising from a selfish notion of an exclusive superiority, and of which no nation is free ; but, on the other hand, if we consider that these foreigners, while they communicate some portion of knowledge, communicate also many of their vices ; and that commerce, if it produces riches, produces also luxury, and this at a long run, must enervate the courage, and destroy the moral principle of the nation ; then perhaps, we might be inclined to justify, to excuse, at least, the Egyptian government and the Egyptian priesthood, for the measures they had employed to prevent foreigners from having any intercourse with their people. And indeed, the unfortunate events which, not long after the abolition of this maxim, put an end to the splendour and liberty of Egypt, seems to have fully justified both the Pharaohs and the priests. The fall in fact, of the Egyptian empire might have been foretold by the relaxed manner in which the people and the government enforced the execution of the ancient laws; and it became unavoidable, as soon as the Pharaoh Psammouthis I. and his successor Amasis, had given permission to foreigners to multiply at pleasure their relations LECTURE X. 361 and intercourse with Egypt. Under the reign of the Pharaohs who had preceded them, the priest- hood, being both powerful and numerous, em- ployed all their influence to keep up this exclusion of strangers ; and as the priests were the deposi- taries of knowledge, as well as religion, they kept the Pharaohs themselves in a species of tutelage or subjection, and rendered the government of Egypt in a manner theocratical, or more pro- perly, hieratical. To preserve their power untouched, and their doctrine unpolluted, they had even been able to excite among the people a general dislike, and, indeed, more than a dislike, for every thing con- nected with navigation ; so that if by law and cus- tom strangers were kept away from their land, custom and prejudice prevented even the natives from wishing to leave their own country. But after Amasis, things began to assume quite a dif- ferent appearance, and paved the way to the in- vasion of Cambyses. For this assertion we have the authority of Manetho and of Syncellus, who says, " Egyptum autem Amasis tempore a debito regis obsequio secedentem, armisque et continuis tumultibus agitatam Cambyses subjecit." It was then that this ferocious conqueror, having put an end to the dominion of the Pharaohs, ravaged the country, pillaged the cities, burnt the temples, and almost annihilated the priesthood ; and then the whole of this land, which formerly had been the 362 LECTURE X. abode of the arts and of the sciences, lost its splen- dour, its glory, and its knowledge, without how- ever losing its celebrity. From Cambyses to Alexander this country ex- hibits a regular succession of the bitterest civil wars, that ever raged amongst mankind. The per- petual efforts of the several chiefs to dehver their country from the yoke of the Persians, drew upon this unfortunate land the misfortunes and the ruin that are the inevitable consequences of revolutions produced by the stubborn resistance of a people, who still preserved the memory of their glory and of their lost independence. But the unfortunate success of these efforts, by increasing the power of their oppressors, rendered them still more tyran- nical and cruel, and produced the greatest possible evil that could befal them as a nation, the ob- livion of their ancient institutions and their ancient customs. It was at this time that Herodotus visited Mem- phis. He saw this people, so renowned for their wisdom and their knowledge, in the utmost dejec- tion, their temples ruined, their cities destroyed ; and the high idea which even then he conceived of Egypt, allows us to imagine what his impression would have been, if he had been permitted to visit this celebrated country during the period of its highest splendour. From this time the Greeks never failed to go to Egypt for the sake of instruction ; and it was in the LECTURE X. 363 schools of the Egyptian priests that the philoso- phers, the legislators, and the wise men of Greece acquired a great portion of their knowledge ; and yet what a difference between the priests of this period, and those who lived under the Pharaohs ! The priests of the Pharaonic ages were well versed in astronomy, physics, geometry, mechanics, and chemistry, in short, in most of the sciences ; while their successors, the teachers of Herodotus and Plato, were but the passive echoes of their prede- cessors, and scarcely could be said to have pre- served the first rudiments and the general outlines of so much learning. Among the Greek scholars, there were a few, who after returning to their country, attempted to communicate to their contemporaries, and to transmit to posterity, what they had seen and heard during their travels in Egypt ; and Herodotus seems to have been the first who attempted to give a short description of that country. But as the Greek alphabet had not a sufficient number of letters fitted to express all the sounds and inflex- ions of the Egyptian language, Herodotus, first, and all the Greek historians after him, were com- pelled to use those letters of their own alphabet which came nearer to the sounds of the Egyp- tian. The alteration which this mode of spelling, necessarily produced, is one of the causes why the Egyptian names are scarcely recognisable in the writings of the Greeks ; and this difference be- comes more striking, and infinitely more difii- 364 LECTURE X. cult to unravel, according to the facility which they had in visiting the interior, and taking their abode in Egypt. This was the case at the time of Alexander. Having conquered the Persians, he transferred the sceptre of that country into the hands of his coun- trymen ; and under the empire of the Ptolemies, by little and little disappeared the last traces of the government of the Pharaohs, and of the ancient cus- toms and usages of the primitive Egyptians. Every thing then assumed a Grecian appearance, and a Grecian tint ; the Egyptian blood became dege- nerated by being mixed with the Macedonian ; the ancient love for knowledge and improvement was lost amongst the natives ; the priests themselves confined their cares and their business to sacred ceremonies, and, neglecting altogether the scientific pursuits which had engrossed the attention of their predecessors, they lost sight of one of the most important objects of their institution. During this last period of the Egyptian empire, that is, from Ptolemy Lagus to Cleopatra, the Greeks made immense changes in every thing with which they meddled in Egypt. By translating into their language the names of most of the Egyptian towns and Egyptian kings, they took from pos- terity the power of recognising them under their ancient form, or even under the form which had been used by their primitive writers. This last circumstance indeed is very striking in the writings of Strabo, and much more of Diodorus, when com- LECTURE X. 365 pared with those of Herodotus. In the account which this latter historian gives of Egypt, we find but few Egyptian names translated into Greek ; but the case is very different with his successors. Strabo in fact, made considerable alteration in the nomenclature used by Herodotus ; and Diodorus, following his example, made some change even in that which Strabo had adopted. One of the principal causes however, for so unpardonable a liberty is to be sought for in that national vanity which formed the characteristic feature of the Greeks. Wishing to appropriate to themselves the discoveries of the great men of other nations, they tried to establish a similarity of origin, audi might say, of theogony, between their own gods and those of Egypt, as they had done with those of Babylon, Persia, and India. But ignorant of the Egyptian language, and mis- taking the very essence of the Egyptian theology, they enveloped the whole under the veil of fable, and transmitted to posterity, not the real creed of the primitive Egyptians, but the corrupt notions of their debased successors, still more vitiated and altered by their own. Misled therefore, by their ignorance and their vanity, they erroneously con- ceived, that the Egyptian Athos was their Aphro- dite ; Ammon, their Zeus ; Phtha, their Hephaistos ; Neith, their Minerva ; Horus, their Apollo ; Thoth, their Hermes ; Sme, their Themis ; Sate, their Juno ; and, Isis and Osiris, mere names to signify the moon and the sun. 366 LECTURE X. This mistake of the Greeks is so much the more to be lamented, as the Egyptians had the custom of giving to many of their towns the names of their deities, and even of the animals that were sacred to them. The errors therefore, which the Greeks made in the names of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, are repeated also in the nomenclature of the natural history, as well as of the geography of Egypt. But this is not all. The scholar has another and more serious charge to bring, not indeed against the Greek writers, but against the Greek sovereigns who ruled over Egypt, the vain and silly Ptolemies. These princes, wishing to transmit their names and their deeds to posterity, endeavoured to imitate the ex- ample of their predecessors ; but unable to perform the stupendous works executed by the Pharaohs, they only betrayed their weakness and their arrogance, by the wicked attempt at erasing from the old monuments the names of their founders, for the sake of substituting their own. In spite of all their efforts, the deep and bold engravings of the primitive workmen still appear, under the feeble strokes of their puny successors ; and the names of the great Pharaohs, by whose order these monu- ments were raised, may still be traced under the comparatively superficial lines which were intended to consign them to oblivion. Hence it happens, that the description which the Greeks give of these monuments mislead the reader, inasmuch as they speak of them as the original performance of the 1 LECTURE X. 361 Ptolemies, and not as the production of more powerful and more ancient sovereigns, the primi- tive Pharaohs. To apply therefore to the Greek writers for a knowledge of the language, religion, laws, and cus- toms of the ancient Egyptians, is to apply to a vitiated and prejudiced source, which exhibits only the darkest and most faithless side of the picture. The account however, which they have given may be of use ; it may direct us to consult higher and more faithful authorities ; and even their own narration, by the assistance of a proper and well-directed criticism, may serve to impart valuable notions. Hard and difficult as this criti- cism may be, it is of absolute necessity. With- out it we shall add the erroneous opinions of our own mind to those which they have left us ; and our errors in the language of your poet may be compared to Alps on Alps arise. Upon this statement, it may be asked, how then the old Egyptian names have reached us ; or in other words, how have we been able to discover the old Egyptian names, which the Greeks had so altered as to render it quite impossible to recognise them ? I answer, through the means of the Arabians, and the Coptic manuscripts. I shall endeavour to establish this fact by the following considerations. Notwithstanding the irruptions, and the con- quest which the Persians, the Greeks, and the 368 LECTURE X. Romans made of Egypt, the feeble remainder of the nation still preserved in their common lan- guage the names which their ancestors had given to their deities, to their animals, and their cities. In this they followed the example of the Orientals, who at all times have been considered as pre- serving, better than any other nation, their names and their customs ; so that, even at this moment, many of the most ancient cities in Asia, and indeed all over the East, are known by the names they received from the earliest time ; and although subdued by foreign conquerors, they have preserved their native language, and local denominations. This is an observation of lamblicus, who had paid a great deal of attention to this subject ; and I think it perfectly correct. It is in fact confirmed by history ; and perhaps, more so in regard to Egypt than any other people upon earth. For although the Greeks altered the ancient Egyptian names, yet these denominations were used by their own nation only, and adopted even by their country- men residing in Europe ; but never by the native Egyptians. These latter continued to use their ancient names, and either disregarded or despised the alterations introduced by their conquerors. The Romans, when they subdued Egypt, being entirely ignorant of the language of the natives, but well acquainted with the Greek language, adopted all the terms and denominations which they had introduced ; and the old Egyptian names, and perhaps the Egyptian language itself, would LECTURE X. 369 have been lost for ever, had not the Arabians by their conquest, put an end to the jargon introduced by the Greeks, and protected and encouraged the vernacular language of their new subjects. Having at that time very little connexion with the Greeks and the Romans, feeling a sort of gratitude towards the Egyptians, who had assisted them in the con- quest of their country, trusting to them the care of collecting the tributes which were to be levied on the different cities, and finding a great analogy between the pronunciation of the Egyptians and their own, the Arabs gave the preference to the Coptic denominations and names, and thus the changes introduced by the Greeks were for ever abohshed. In this way the ancient names, being generally revived, were adopted even by the Ara- bians themselves, who have transmitted them to us with some shght modifications. What these alterations are, I do not think it necessary to mention. The account of them belongs more properly to the analysis of the Coptic and Arabian languages, with which we have nothing to do ; our object is merely to ascertain the mode by which the ancient Egyptian names, and Egyp- tian language, have been preserved. LECTURE XL Statement of the subject — Difference in the chronology of the Hehreio text, and the Samaritan and Greek version of the Bible — Inadmissibility of the Hebrew computation, proved by facts mentioned by sacred as xvell as profane history — Ages of Nimrod, of Ninus, and of Abraham, ascertained — Foundation of the Egyptian monarchy by Misraim — Multi' plication of mankind — Opinion of Bishop Cumberland con- futed — Alteration of the Hebrew chronology — Objections stated and resolved — Reasons why the genealogical tables recorded by the ancient historians are entitled to credit — Causes which produced the discrepancy in the names and number of the different sovereigns — Attempt at reducing to a reasonable computation the fabulous reckonings of the Ori' ental historians — System of M. Gibert — Explained — Exem- plifed — Babylonian, Egyptian, and Chinese chronology. In one of my Lectures, speaking of the origin of the city of Abydos, and indeed in most of the Lectures that I have given on the subject of hiero- glyphics, I have mentioned so repeatedly the high antiquity of some of the Egyptian monuments, that I think it necessary, before I proceed any fur- ther, to prove to you that this antiquity is by no means improbable, nor does it contradict in the least the commanding authority of our holy Scrip- LECTURE XI. 371 tures. On one occasion particularly, (page 203,) alluding to this antiquity, I made this same obser- vation, and mentioned, that however startling the antiquity of some of the Egyptian monuments may appear at first sight, it is entitled to our belief, provided we adopt the chronology of the Seventy, that is, of the version which was made of our holy Scriptures from the Hebrew into the Greek lan- guage, at the desire as it is said, of Ptolemy Phila- delphus, about three centuries before Christ. To make you understand this point, I will, in the best manner I can, call your attention to some facts which will render what I have to state, in regard to Egypt, more intelligible. You know we have three different texts of the Scriptures : the Hebrew, the Samaritan, and the Greek ; or as it is commonly called, the Septuagint. As they inculcate the same doctrine, exhibit the same facts, record the same events, give the same history; in short as they agree together on all points, they are either three texts, or copies of the same original. Their authenticity therefore is indis- putable. The only thing they differ upon, is the chronology of the primitive ages of the world. The Hebrew text shortens its period, and reckons about 4000 years from the Creation to the birth of our Saviour. The Septuagint carries the calcula- tion between Adam and Christ to above 6000 vears ; and the Samaritan text adopts a third computation, which differs from the Hebrew and Septuagint. To give you a specimen of these different modes B b 2 372 LECTURE XI. of chronological reckoning, I shall instance two or three dates. According to the Hebrew, we have, between Adam and the flood, 1656 years ; accord- ing to the Samaritan, 1307 ; and according to the Septuagint, 2242. This difference becomes more striking, and by far more puzzling, in regard to the dates of the different events which are related to have come to pass after the deluge ; for as we have no other mode for ascertaining the first establish- ment of the several monarchies, and the antiquity of the different nations, we find ourselves sur- rounded by almost insurmountable difficulties, whenever we try to reconcile the account of pro- fane writers with the authority of the Bible. These difficulties however, principally exist in regard to the Hebrew text, which shortens the chronology so much, as physically to allow no time to mankind to become sufficiently numerous to fill a corner of the earth, much less to separate into different bodies, and perform the deeds which are recorded. For this reason, I am not in the least surprised at the incredulity of those who, never having turned their thoughts to this subject, deny the antiquity of ancient monuments in general, and of the Egyptian in particular, and in short the autho- rity of most profane writers, merely because they exceed the reckoning of the Hebrew Bible. The object therefore, of the present Lecture will be twofold. In the first instance, I shall endea- to shew that the computation of the Hebrew text is inadmissible, and that the chronology of the LECTURE XI. 373 Septuagint is the only true reckoning. This I shall prove, first, by arguments of fact principally drawn from the sacred pages themselves ; and after- wards by the authority of all writers, both sacred and profane, who, in giving the history of the seve- ral nations, have followed a computation which coincides with the chronology of the Septuagint, the only one known in the world, long before and after the birth of Christ. Having thus ascertained the truth of the reckon- ing established by the Septuagint, I will, in the next place, endeavour to prove, that the antiquity of the Egyptian monuments, as it is recorded by Manetho, by no means contradicts the authority of the sacred pages, according to the reckoning of the Greek version. Of the great many instances which might be adduced to prove the incongruity of the reckoning of the Hebrew text, I shall select two periods ; one preceding and the other following the flood. The one preceding the deluge will be the date attached to the death of Methuselah ; the other, following the flood, will be the birth of Abraham. The former I bring forward merely to shew the incon- sistency of the reckoning of the Hebrew text ; the latter, besides this general purport, will have another object, much more important to our present inquiry, and that is, to enable us to fix, with a degree of certainty, the antiquities of Egypt. In Genesis we are told that Methuselah lived 969 years ; that he was 187 years old when he begat 374 LECTURE XI. Lamech ; and that Lamech, at the age of 182 years, begat Noah ; therefore, if we sum up toge- ther the age of Lamech when he begat Noah, and the age of Methuselah when he begat Lamech, we shall find that Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. Now Methuselah lived 600 years after this event ; and we are also told, that Noah entered the ark when he was in the six hun- dredth year of his age ; therefore, it follows, that when Noah entered the ark, Methuselah was still alive ; and as there is no mention made of his having accompanied his grandson into the ark, he must have perished in the flood. Let the defend- ers of the chronology of the Hebrew text explain this calculation as well as they can, and reconcile it with the account which Moses gives in Genesis. Now for the birth of Abraham. On that period all writers agree, and the testimony of the sacred pages gives an indisputable weight to their au- thority, that powerful kingdoms were already established; great cities had been built; regular armies were maintained; mankind already wit- nessed the pomp of courts, and the luxury of indi- viduals; Pharaoh appeared surrounded with his princes ; Abimelech came attended with the cap- tain of his host; the use of coined money was introduced, and Abraham himself was rich in gold and silver, in tents, flocks, and herds. Now according to the genealogical computation of the Hebrew Bible, Abraham was born in the two hundred and ninety -second year after the 1 LECTURE XI. 375 flood. This is too short a period to produce so much civiUzation and hixury ; by far too short to suppose so great a multiphcation of the human species ; because, if such was the state of things in Egypt, and in other countries at a comparatively great distance from the first seat of population, we are also to suppose, that in this first seat of popula- tion, in the plain of Shinar, and on the borders of the Euphrates and Tigris, kingdoms had been formed, cities built, and courts estabhshed. We are in fact, informed by Moses, that the beginning of a regular government and of regal power was at Babel. Nimrod, the son of Cush, the gi'andson of Ham, the mighty hunter mentioned in Genesis, " began to be a mighty one in the earth ;" that is, Nimrod was the first sovereign who aspired to independence and the prerogative of an autocrat. Upon this evidence therefore, we are authorized to believe, that prior to the birth of Abraham, the Babylonian empire had been founded. The diffi- culty therefore, will be to ascertain the date of the birth of Nimrod. If we admit the chronology of the Hebrew text, he was born 2218 years before Christ, that is, 130 years after the flood. Now I contend that this period is much too short to allow mankind to multiply to such a degree, as to be able to estabUsh a regular government at Babylon, to erect the building of Babel, and to divide them- selves into different societies. The reasons which lead me to this conclusion are the following : We know, that after the flood, the race of man- 376 LECTURE XI. kind proceeded from the three sons of Noah ; for there is no mention made any where that that patriarch had any other child after the deluge. According to the Hebrew genealogy, we cannot possibly admit, during the course of the first cen- tury, more than three generations. The text is clear. Noah begat Ham, Ham begat Cush, and Cush begat Nimrod; and this is said to have happened in the year 130 after the flood. Upon this statement I beg leave to make the following observations : According to the sacred text, in the first genera- tion which proceeded from the three sons of Noah, we have seven male individuals in the family of Japheth, four in that of Ham, and five in that of Shem ; in all, sixteen males only. Now before we can give a wife to each of these, we must suppose an equal number of daughters born in the respec- tive families of Japheth, Ham, and Shem. Taking ten years as the shortest possible period for the birth of these sixteen females, and thirty-five years as the usual age for marriage, nearly one-half of the first century must have passed away before these thirty-two cousins could intermarry with one another. Now let us suppose that these thirty-two cousins, or sixteen married couples, were as fruitful as their parents had been, and consequently that each begat five sons and five daughters, the result will be sixteen multiplied by ten, 16X10=160, that is, one_ hundred and sixty people, amongst whom we L E C T U R E XI. 377 have Cush the son of Ham, as the produce of the second generation of the three sons of Noah. Now these 160 people make eighty married cou- ples ; and upon the same principle, allowing to all these couples ten children each, we shall have eight hundred individuals as the third generation from Noah, for such is the product of eighty, which is the number of the married couples, multiphed by ten, the number of children begotten by each of them. To these, if we add their fathers and their mothers, their grandfathers and their grandmothers, and even their great-grand parents, with the common stock of all Noah and his wife, we shall have one thousand individuals as the sum total of man- kind at the birth of Nimrod, that is, in the year 130 after the flood. For the whole account runs thus. Noah, with his wife and three sons, and their wives, saved in the ark 8 individuals. Children of Shem, Ham, and Ja- pheth, amongst whom Cush . 32 Grand-children of these three pa- triarchs, amongst whom Nim- rod, the son of Cush, the son of Ham 160 Great-grand-children of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Nimrod, and the rest of mankind . . . 800 Making altogether . . 1000 individuals. This is much too small a number to justify the 378 LECTURE XI. account of the usurpation of Nimrod, the building of Babel, and the dispersion of mankind. Indeed, the very building of that tower required more means and more tools, and materials, and instruments, than men could have produced or collected in so short a space. For in the computation just made, the greatest part were children and infants, and there- fore unable, for some time, to do any sort of work, for they must have reached the years of manhood about the time when Nimrod usurped the supreme power, and began to build Babylon, which could not have been sooner than thirty years after, if even then. Nor can it be objected, that in the computation just made, too small a number of children has been allowed to each married couple ; for the fact is quite the reverse. The Scripture in fact, in the second generation, reckons only thirty-six males as the grandsons of Noah, and we have allowed him eighty, which is more than double that number. For the truth of this assertion I have only to refer you to the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis, in which we have seven sons recorded in the family of Japheth, twenty-four in that of Ham, and five in that of Shem ; in all thirty-six. I am aware that other computations have been made, which give a number not a little at variance with that which we have had. Amongst these computations we must record that of Dr. Cumber- land, bishop of Peterborough, who published, about a century ago, an amusing tract on this subject. LECTURE XI. 379 According to this prelate, the number of mankind about the year 140 after the flood amounted to no less than 30,000 ; and two centuries after, the mar- ried people alone to no less than 6,666,666,660. Now if to these we add the moderate average of two children to each marriage, we shall have more than twenty thousand milhons of human beings existing in the year 340 after the flood; a sum which exceeds by more than one half, any number that has ever been supposed to have existed in the world at any given time. When an argument terminates in positive absur- dity, it is hardly worth while, says Dr. Russell, to examine the process of reasoning by which the con- clusion was attained ; and to confute the Reverend Prelate would be an unpardonable waste of time. From what I have stated, and from other rea- sons which I forbear to state, it is evident that the chronology of the Hebrew text is inadmissible ; and every intelligent reader of ancient history, both sacred and profane, and even of the holy Bible, must see the absolute necessity of adopting the com- putation of the Septuagint version, which agrees with the writers of all ages and all nations, and with the Hebrew text itself, as it had been known in the world up to the second century of our era. Do not startle at this assertion : the reasons which, after having bestowed on this subject all the atten- tion it deserves, have led me to this conclusion, are of the most convincing nature ; Mira, sed et scaena testificata, loquar. 380 LECTURE XL The fact is this : up to the year 127 after Christ there was but one system of chronology, which had been followed by all chronographers and historians, whether sacred or profane, both before and after the birth of Christ. This chronology was the chronology of the Hebrew text itself, and conse- quently the chronology of the several versions that had been made of it, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint. I could adduce many arguments to prove this to have beeen the fact, but this discussion would lead us much away from our subject. I will there- fore mention one only of the many proofs of the agreement of the Greek version with the Hebrew text, and that is, that Josephus openly and repeat- edly asserts that he compiled his Antiquities from the Hebrew Scriptures, and yet his chronology coincides with the computation of the Septuagint. and disagrees with the reckoning of the Hebrew text as much as the Septuagint now does. This was, in reality, the chronology which had been adopted by the heathen wi'iters before the birth of Christ, and by the heathen and the Christian authors even after the death of our Saviour. For in point of fact, before the second century of the Christian era, no traces can be found of any controversy, or of any difference between the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Holy Bible. All the authors who quote the Old Testament at that early period, whether Jews, Christians, or Heathens, and even the apostles and our Saviour, have recourse to the Hebrew text and LECTURE XT. 381 the Greek version indiscriminately, without indi- cating the least suspicion in respect to their not perfectly agreeing together. The difference, therefore, which we now find in the chronology of these two texts of our Scrip- tures, is the work of a time posterior to the first century after Christ ; and it seems a fact now fully established, that this alteration took place about the year 30 of the second century. At that time a new translation of the Old Testament into Greek was produced by the Jews, under the auspices of their leading Rabbis, the object of which was to bring into discredit the venerable work of the Seventy. This task was performed by a learned man, and a pagan priest, of the name of Aquila, who, after having embraced Christianity, was for his heretical opinions expelled from the bosom of the Church, and therefore attached himself to the Jews, for the sake of injuring and calumniating the Christians, and their religion. Although the liberties which Aquila and the Rabbis used with the original were soon perceived and exposed, yet two years after a work appeared, entitled Seder Olam Rahha, that is, the great Chronicle of the world ; which presented to the Jews the first fruits of the labours which the ene- mies of Christianity had bestowed upon the Hebrew writings. This mutilated system of chronology was put forth under the name of Rabbi Jos'i, and favoured by the countenance of the notorious 382 LECTURE XI. Akiba, the supporter of the rebel and false Christ Barchocab. The pubhcation of the Seder Olam Rahha may with certainty be regarded as marking the epoch at which the Jews altered the dates of the great events recorded in their sacred books, and adopted the abbreviated scheme of ancient Chro- nology. I have already stated, that as the Christians were wont to produce the testimonies of Scripture against the Jews, out of the Greek ver- sion, the Jews were obliged to appeal from that Greek version, which alone the Christians under- stood, to the Hebrew text, which they understood not ; and in order to avoid the arguments of the Christians, they not only translated their original Scriptures in a different manner, but altered the dates. For five or six centuries this flagi'ant treachery of the Jews was at different times exposed, and con- sequently their new chronology was never adopted by the Christian writers. But about the year 720, the venerable Bede published his works De Tem- porum Ratione et sex getatibus mundi, &c. ; in which he endeavoured to introduce the reckoning of the Jews. But his reasoning was ill-received, and neglected ; though perhaps, during the dark ages, the weight of his name might have procured some followers to his opinion. On the revival of learning the controversy was renewed with vigour and freedom, and it soon called LECTURE XI. 383 into the field the powerful talents of a Scaliger, a Petavius, a Vossius, a Perron, and an Usher. By the powerful efforts of these justly celebrated men, the reckoning of the Septuagint was again fully established. But at the time of the Reforma- tion, the most stern of the Reformers, finding that the Samaritan computation was wrong, and wishing to oppose, in any thing and every thing, the doc- trines of the Church of Rome, decided that the chronology of the Greek version must be equally wrong ; and without analysing the grounds of their decision, they threw the weight of their authority in favour of the orignal Hebrew, and thus suc- ceeded in introducing, at least among the Protest- ants, the corrupt chronology of the Hebrew text. But if then, the concurrent testimony of all ages and all nations refer us to the computation of the Septuagint ; if the dictates of reason point to us the chronology marked by this version of the Scrip- tures, as the only means of extricating ourselves from difficulties which we cannot otherwise con- quer or explain ; if the monuments of Egypt, un- deniable by their nature, and unimpeachable in regard to their authenticity, add a fresh weight to the necessity of this adoption, and an additional authority to this computation, a computation which has been for ages the only one known in the world, we may, and indeed we must, look upon it as the only reckoning that can reconcile Scriptural chronology with those Egyptian monuments that now so boldly stare us in the face. «, 384 LECTURE XI. According to this computation, the period which elapsed from the creation of the world to the birth of our Saviour, contains not less than 5441 years, exceeding the Hebrew text by 1437 years. This period must be divided into two parts ; one pre- ceding, the other following the deluge ; the former comprehends the space of 600 years, the latter a little more than 800 ; according therefore, to the computation of the Septuagint, the deluge of Noah happened in the year 2262 of the world ; and from that time to the birth of Christ, have passed not less than nearly 3200 years. This period, with a very trifling difference, agrees with the gi-eatest part of the chronological accounts recorded by the different chronographers ; and, with very trifling variations, corresponds with the chronology of most of the Eastern nations, the Persians, the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Phoeni- cians, and the Egyptians ; and it is quite sufficient to account for any degree of civilization and im- provement, which we find recorded by the histo- rian, under the first leaders of mankind. Amongst these are the founders of the Babylonian and Assy- rian monarchies, Nimrod, and Ashm', or, more pro- perly, Ninus. By adopting the computation of the Septuagint, Nimrod was born 334 years after the flood ; to these, 30 years at least must be added, to allow him to be of an age sufficiently strong to become the head of his people, and we shall have 364 years as the period in which Babylon was founded. Now this number is large enough to LECTURE XI. 385 suppose the children of Ham to have multiplied to an extent quite sufficient for the establishment of the Babylonian empire ; for during this period, there must have been eleven or twelve generations, which would produce a number of individuals sufficiently large to undertake the building of Babel, and soon after to separate under different leaders. And here perhaps, I may be permitted to ob- serve, that in adopting the reckoning of 5441 years from Adam to Christ, I have not assumed the largest number. According to the Alphonsine Tables, the computation would have carried us to nearly 7000 years; and even, according to Ric- cioh, to 5634, which is nearly 200 years more. Having thus proved the existence of the Babylo- nian empire, anterior to the time of Abraham visit- ing Egypt, my next object will be to ascertain the period in which that patriarch made his appear- ance at the court of Pharaoh. According to the Hebrew text, he visited Egypt 1921 years before Christ, that is, 292 after the Flood. This compu- tation is wrong. For if I have proved Nimrod to have established the Babylonian empire in the fourth century after the Flood, it is evident that Abraham, who was much later in point of time, must have hved long after the period assigned by the Hebrew Bible ; and we shall find that, in fact, he did not come into the world till the year 1072, reckoning from the same point. The proof of this assertion is by no means diffir. c c 386 LECTURE XI. cult, though perhaps, it may be a httle intricate ; but if you favour me with a httle attention, I hope to make the whole quite plain. It seems a point agreed upon by all the most learned writers of antiquity, that Abraham was contemporary with Ninus. This monarch, having conquered the Babylonian empire, added its fertile provinces to his Assyrian dominions. By ascertain- ing therefore the age of Ninus, we shall in fact ascertain the age of Abraham ; and as this pa- triarch visited Egypt, at a time when that kingdom had already acquired a great degree of civilization and power, by establishing the date of his appear- ance at the court of Pharaoh, we shall remove every possible objection that can be urged against the antiquities of Egypt ; for it is only in reference to Egypt that we enter into all this discussion ; my object being to point out to you, that the antiquity of the monuments found in that coun- try is proved by the most undeniable historical authorities, and by no means contradictory to, or contradicted by, the Mosaic account ; on the contrary, confirming every syllable of it. Amongst the ancient writers who have endea- voured to transmit to posterity the history of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, the most re- markable are Syncellus, Alexander Polyhistor, Africanus, and the celebrated Moses Chorenensis, commonly called Moses of Chorene, who, in his Armenian history, has preserved a valuable frag- ment, copied from Abydenus, an industrious com- LECTURE XT. S87 piler of Chaldean records. All these writers ap- pear to have copied from more ancient authors, the passing of the events which they have recorded, the date of which is now lost in the darkness of a very remote antiquity. All these historians agree in mentioning the names of eighteen different kings, who succeeded Nimrod at Babylon, and from their account it seems an established fact, that, between Nimrod and Ninus, three successive dynasties held the sceptre of that empire. The first, which com- menced with Nimrod, consisted of seven kings, and continued for the space of 225 years ; some writers say 190. The second dynasty consisted of six kings ; it was founded by Mardocentes, an Arabian, who invaded Babylon, and, together with his successors, held the empire for 215 years. The third dynasty, consisting of five kings, began with ^7 ther, make up the sum of 475 ; therefore, to com- plete the 511 years mentioned by Manetho, we want 36 ; this is the medial space that intervenes between the first expulsion of the Shepherds and the arrival of Jacob ; and these thirty-six years may be thus divided. From Genesis xxxvii. 2. we learn, that Joseph was sold when he was seventeen years old, and was full thirty when he stood before Pharaoh. He had been, therefore, thirteen years in Egypt. Then commenced the seven years of plenty ; and in the second year of famine, when five years of famine were yet unexpired, Jacob and his family emigrated into Egypt, Genesis xlvi. Hence, at the period of the emigration, Joseph had resided twenty-one years in Egypt. But if we deduct these twenty- one years from thirty-six, we shall have the resi- due of fifteen years ; and this is the period that elapsed between the expulsion of the Shepherds and the selling of Joseph by the Midianites to Potiphar. Now we know that these thirty-six years must begin from the conquest of Egypt made by the Pharaoh Thumosis. We also know that his reign, from first to last, continued for thirty years, Cpage 424]], some of which must necessarily have been employed in the war with these Shepherds ; therefore, these thirty-six years must expire, either under the reign of Chebron, son of Thumosis, or in the reign of his successor, Amenophis ; and we shall see that this last is the Pharaoh. H h 2 468 LECTURE XIII. From the first expulsion of the Shepherds from Avaris by Thumosis, to their finally leaving the country, elapsed a period of 251 years. By sum- ming up the reigns of the successors of this prince, we find these 251 years terminate at the death of the Pharaoh Mandouei, the thirteenth sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty. But Thumosis employed seven or eight years at least before he could expel the Shepherds, and the arrival of Jacob took place thirty-six years after ; by joining these two items together, we have the sum of forty-four or forty- three years, if not more. Now the united reigns of Thumosis, and his son Chebron, amount to forty-three years only ; therefore, the Pharaoh who gave to Joseph the government of Egypt, must have been Amenophis, the successor of Chebron, whose name, perhaps by a mistake of orthography, was changed into that of Aphophis, and whose reign continued for twenty years. From what has been said, I think I may conclude, that the Pharaoh Mandouei was the Pharaoh who occupied the throne of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, and that the Pharaoh Amenophis I. was the prince who protected Joseph. This hypothesis I shall endeavour to establish still more by the following considerations, and his- torical facts. On all Egyptian monuments which record the victories of the different Pharaohs over the enemies of their country, we always distinguish three seve- ral and distinct sets of people, and they are the LECTURE XIII. 469 negroes, whose appearance, says M. Champollion, can never be mistaken, for they appear in the same costume, in which the negroes are invariably painted on the royal monuments of Thebes, disco- vered by Belzoni. Joined to these, there is another set of people, invariably represented with red hair, and blue eyes, wearing round their bodies ox- hides, still rough and untanned, while their arms and legs are tatooed. These barbarians, M. Cham- pollion very properly remarks, are the celebrated Shepherds, the Hyk-shos, who, issuing from Asia, conquered and ruined Egypt, till the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty put an end to their depredations. Besides these two nations, a third set of people is to be met with, on almost all the Egyptian monu- ments, represented with long and thick beards, sometimes having their heads uncovered, at other times wearing a species of bonnet, very large towards the neck, but fastened at the top by a circle, or diadem. They have also a sort of tippet, which descends to their elbows, and covers the whole bust. These, like the two nations above mentioned, are very often to be met with on the Egyptian monuments raised to the memory of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty, and this cir- cumstance alone justifies the supposition, which their dress and manner must certainly suggest, of their being the Israelites, the people who, next to the Shepherds, brought desolation and ruin over Egypt, and whose images, like those of the Hyk- shos and the negroes, are never represented but 470 LECTURE XIII. in a state of dejection, bondage, or captivity. In the beautiful collection of prints published by the " Commission d'Egypt," and even in those attached to the travels of Caillaud, there are many, exhibiting them all prostrated and in chains, on the footstools of the throne of the Pharaohs ; some of them are to be seen amongst the ruins at Sourien-Taoua, in Nubia, a monument which bears a great deal of similarity to the Memnonium ; and the figures are engraved round the lower part of the columns which supported and adorned the temple, just as Champollion mentions, in his first letter to the Duke de Blacas, that he had observed round the monument of the Pharaoh Horns, in the Museum of Turin. Indeed, we have seen, in a former Lecture, that such was the detestation which the whole nation felt towards these indivi- duals, that amongst the several collections of Egyp- tian relics, very often we meet with shoes, painted underneath with the figures of prisoners belonging to each of the three above-mentioned people. Of these specimens there are several in the different cabinets of the learned ; and M. Caillaud, from all accounts, possesses, perhaps, the most curious. It might be said, that if the Shepherds, and not the Egyptians, were the oppressors of the Israelites, and if, according to the opinion of Mr. Faber, the army of the former, and not of the latter, perished in the Red Sea ; in short, if the Egyptians were as cruelly treated by the Shep- herds as the Israelites, why should the Egyptians LECTURE XIII. 471 shew so much detestation for the Israehtes, who, after all, were the descendants and relations of Joseph, of that very man who had conferred so much benefit on their land, and whose memory could never be forgotten ? To this objection it may be answered that, according to the relation of Manetho, the Israelites had called to their aid the Hyk-shos, and the hardships which the Egyp- tians underwent, during the time of their dwelling in their land, were a strong and a sufficient reason to make them share in the hatred which the Egyp- tians felt for these destroyers of their country, even if there had been no previous cause for detesting them, which is not the case. For, in this respect, the same story is told both by the Holy Bible and Manetho. According to this historian, you remem- ber, I hope, that the Shepherds held the throne of Memphis, and for some time at least rendered tributaries even the Pharaohs, who reigned at Thebes, from the death of Timaus to their leaving the country, by the victories of Thumosis, that is, for the space of 260 years. During this time the Shepherds practised every species of cruelty and abomination throughout the land, and their beha- viour certainly must have inspired the natives with sentiments and feelings of horror and detestation towards these barbarians. Now the same fact is recorded by our sacred Scripture. At the time of the descent of Israel into Egypt, we are informed in the book of Genesis, that Joseph instructed his brethren how they should answer Pharaoh. '* And 472 LECTURE XIII. it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, what is your occupation ? that you shall say, thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and also our fathers : that you may dwell in the land of Goshen ; for every shepherd is an abomination nnto the Egyptians" If then the Egyptians felt such a dislike to the very trade of a shepherd, as to require some management on the part of Joseph, notwithstand- ing his great power at the court of Pharaoh, to obtain for his father and brothers the land of Goshen, it is clear that this feeling must have had an origin and a cause ; and Manetho tells us, that this cause was the tyrannical treatment which the Egyptians had received at the hands of the Shep- herds. I see, therefore, according to the relation of Manetho, not the sHghtest reason why the Israel- ites, who had called the Shepherds to their aid, should not be equally detested as their allies ; for these allies were the sworn enemies of the Egyp- tians, the mockers of their religion, and the destroy- ers of their land. But again, it may be insisted upon, that the figures of the people whom we take to be the Israehtes, may, after all, represent the Assyrians, the Persians, or any other warlike nation who had attacked Egypt, for the costume of these prisoners, as far as we know, may belong to any one of these nations, whose mode of worship was as different LECTURE XIII. 473 as that of the Israehtes from the rehgion of the Egyptians. Then* representing the Israehtes, therefore, is but a supposition ; for, amongst the several inscriptions found on the different temples throughout Egypt, there is no monument which records their departure, or even their dwelling in the land. To this objection it may be answered, that although we have no monument or inscription which records the sojourning and departure of the Israelites from Egypt, these facts are mentioned with a great deal of precision and minuteness by Manetho, whose account explains many passages of the Bible, of which no one can otherwise see the reason ; and that historian, by fixing the date of the first and second irruption of the Shepherds, when they came to the assistance of the Israelites does in fact empower us to suppose that the images of the prisoners whom we take to be the descend- ants of Jacob, were in fact the representations of these people ; because the monuments on w^hich they appear are unquestionably the production of times much posterior to the first years of the descent of Israel. To this powerful reason it may be added, that the monuments which we have as yet derived from Egypt are, comparatively speaking, so few, as to prevent us from asserting with certainty that there are not others from which the information required may be obtained. The difficulties which European tra- vellers have encountered in their attempts to col- 474 LECTURE XIII. lect the little they have discovered, are well known to those who have perused their jour- nals ; and the national jealousy which most if not all of them felt against the success of others who were not their countrymen, has been, per- haps, the greatest and most humiliating feature in this distressing picture. It was the principal cause of the failure of the indefatigable Belzoni ; of the delay which Dr. Young experienced in ob- taining a copy of the inscription found at Menouf ; and of the trouble which most travellers have been obliged to take, and of which they most bitterly complain. The absence therefore of historical monuments which commemorate any of the events attached to the sojourning and departure of the Israelites from Egypt, can never be considered as a con- clusive evidence of their non-existence. They may still make their appearance, and the indefatig- able and well-directed exertions of M. Champollion, who is now on the spot, at the head of two com- missions expressly sent to dig, collect, and acquire any and every valuable remains of Egyptian anti- quities, make me hope that the epoch is not far distant when the full knowledge of every thing connected with the history and customs of the old Egyptians will no longer be withheld from our scholars. Some valuable information has been already obtained from the collections which the several travellers have made. That of M. Cail- laud possesses some curious specimens of almost LECTURE XIII. 475 every article of dress, several of furniture, differ- ent utensils, cloth, musical instruments, and strings, combs, looking-glasses, baskets, and what perhaps will surprise you to hear, as much as it surprised me to learn, is, that the custom of wearing wigs and false hair was by no means uncommon amongst the Egyptians. But we must return to our subject, and try whe- ther, amongst the monuments and insciiptions we have, we can find any that have some reference to the Israelites and the Hyk-shos. Amongst the Egyptian antiquities existing in the Museum of Turin, the indefatigable Champollion, in his first letter to the Due de Blacas, mentions one which appears to me to deserve our attention, as it exhibits a fact, the explanation of which is rather difficult and puzzling. You remember that in the elevation of the cele- brated palace of Karnac, the remains of a much older building had been preserved, so as to form a whole with the new edifice. On these remains there are various hieroglyphical legends, and one in par- ticular, which is often repeated. It consists, as usual, of two ovals, [[Table 11. fig. 3. a and hr\ the first exhibiting the praenomen, or mystic titles, and the second the name of one of the Pharaohs. The mean- ing of which is, " King of the obedient people, the sun, guardian of the worlds, loving Ammon, son of the sun, beloved (or chosen) by Phtha, Maiidoii-ei" Of this inscription I suppose you will now be able to decypher most of the characters. I will 47G LECTURE XIII. therefore mention only those which, being symbo- Hg, may present some difficulty. In the oval «, the external phonetic hieroglyphics express the usual title common to all monarchs, '' King of the obedient people ;" and amongst the internal, we see first the circle, which is the symbol of the god Phre, or the Sun, and the post with a jackal's head, the symbol of a guardian, then follows the beetle, as the symbol of the world, and the three dots, which are the mark of the plural number, and therefore of the three divisions of Egypt, or the Egyptian world ; and the pedestal, an M, preceding the phonetic name of Amnion, (page 183,) means, loving Ammon. In the oval h, the external cha- racters signify, as usual, son of the sun ; and of the internal, the first three are the phonetic hierogly- phics of the god Phtha, (page 129,) and of the last two, the parallelogram stands for M, and means Met, or Mai, that is, loved ; the undulating line is an N, and means of, or hj. Among the middle characters we have, first, the symbolico-figurative hieroglyphic of the god Mandou, and the two feathers, which are phonetic, and stand for I, or EI. This Pharaoh Mandou-ei, is the Osymandias of the Greeks ; the great conqueror whose magnifi- cent tomb contained a voluminous library, and exhibited the sculpture of the campaigns of this prince against the Bactrians ; Diodorus Siculus, who gives a minute description of this superb build- ing, speaks of it from the information he had col- lected from the Egyptian annals, when he visited LECTURE XUI. 477 that country ; for the whole had disappeared. This of course must have been the effect of violence. The hand of time alone could not produce its anni- hilation. Time has been forced to respect, in Egypt, buildings less solid than this. But the curious circumstance to which I wish to call your attention is, that in all the legends of the Pharaoh Mandou-ei, the image of the god Mandou has been hammered away, and entirely cancelled. Even on the colossus of this prince, now existing in the Museum of Turin, and on which the name of this Pharaoh is repeated seven times, the same mutilation is observed : and the gentlemen who formed the commission of Egypt have also been obliged to publish, in the description of that country, the name of this prince, more or less mutilated in the two syllables which made the word Mandou, that is, they saw that in that place there was a hieroglyphic representing something like a sitting figure, which had been so defaced as not to allow them to discover that it had the head of a hawk, with two small feathers, or tufts. The same is observed in the colossus of this Pha- raoh, in the British Museum. This mutilation is much too general to suppose it the effect of chance. The cry of the whole na- tion can alone explain the striking phenomenon. History has in fact preserved accounts of some of these terrible judgments passed by the people on some of their sovereigns. We know the decree which was enacted against the founder himself of the 478 LECTURE XIII. Egyptian monarchy, and the total abohtion of the honours once paid to him ; we read, not without shuddering, the very words of the malediction and curses poured on and inscribed against the very name of Menes, within the sacred precincts of the temples ; and every scholar remembers in what degree of horror were held even those of Cheops and Chephrenes. We have then reason to suppose that something of the same sort was decreed against the Pharaoh Mcmclou-ei, and that the proscription of his memory was the cause of the mutilation. But then we should be inclined to ask, why so much hatred against a sovereign whose victories had extended their empire, and added new lustre to the annals of his reign, and adorned the capital, and indeed the whole of the country, with splendid and magnificent buildings ? M. Champollion, in noticing this extraordinary mutilation, leaves it in doubt whether this animad- version was directed against the Pharaoh, or the god Mandou ; and after analysing this question in all its bearings, with that diffidence which at all times is the greatest characteristic of talent and learning, concludes the examination with the well- known saying, Non nostrum tantas componere lites. Perhaps after this confession of such a man as Champollion, I ought to imitate his example, and let this monument alone ; for the motto with which he concludes his observations may, with 1 LECTURE XIII. 479 greater reason, be repeated by me. I must, there- fore, request you will acquit me of presumption, if I venture to state some circumstances connected with this extraordinary mutilation of the name of Mandou, by which, perhaps, it may appear not unreasonable to suppose, that this mutilation was the effect of national indignation against the Pha- raoh himself, not entirely unconnected with the Exodus of the Israelites. In the first place, I ought to observe, that amongst the Pharaohs of the different dynasties, we find only three whose names were either entirely or in part made by that of the god Mandou. The first is the Pharaoh Mandou-ei, or Osymandias I. [|fig. 3.^ which I have just mentioned. He was the chief of the six- teenth dynasty. His historical name and mystic titles we have already explained, and therefore I pass on to the second Pharaoh, who bore the name of Mandou-ei. He is the Achencheres of Manetho. He was the thirteenth sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty, as we saw in a former Lecture, page 424, and lived, in round numbers, nearly seven centu- turies after the first. His historical name and mystic titles are exhibited in Table 1 1 . fig. 2. « and h. The external hieroglyphics at the top of each oval are the same with those in fig. 3. exhibiting the legend of Mandou-ei I. ; therefore, their mean- ing is, " King of the obedient people, and son of the sun." Equally the same are the characters in the oval h, which mean, " beloved by Phtha Man- dou-ei." But those in the first ovala are different. 480 LECTURE XIII. for they exhibit the symbol of the god Phre, and the figure of the goddess Sme, joined to the paral- lelogram, which is an abbreviation of Mei, and therefore means, " beloved by Phre and Sme." It is by this difference in the mystic titles that we discover, that though these two Pharaohs bore the same name of Mandou-ei, yet they are two distinct sovereigns, belonging to different dynasties. The third Pharaoh, whose name composed that of the god Mandou, is Mandoiiftep. He was the chief of the twenty-first dynasty, and lived four centuries after Mandou-ei II. ; and his name appears on a very interesting monument, which M. Champolhon, in his second letter to the Due de Blacas, styles " un precieux modele de sculp- ture Egyptienne." On this monument there is a long inscription in hieroglyphics, consisting of fifteen long lines ; the first and second of which exhibit, among other characters, the oval, contain- ing some of his titles, and his historical name. CTable 11. fig. 4.;] Of the four external characters you have the regular import ; " King of the obedient people." The first two pictures in the oval, the goose and the circle, are phonetic characters, and mean, " son of the sun ;" and of the remaining signs the paral- lelogram is an M, the undulating line an N, the tongs a D, the bird an O, or U, the next sign an F, the half-circle a T, and the square a P ; spelling all together Mandouftep, which is a compound of Mandou, the name of the god, and te}^, or tef. LECTURE XIIL 481 which means sacred, or devoted ; so that the whole means, " sacred to the god Mandou." From these facts, therefore, it appears to me, that the mutilation of the hieroglyphics, whether figurative, symbolical, or phonetic, expressing the name of Mandou, cannot be applied to the god himself, nor to the Pharaoh Mandouftep, because, if this had been the case, we should have found the same mutilation on the monument I have just described, which, being of an important and reli- gious character, was very proper to be selected as a fit object for this national animadversion. Upon these considerations, we may reasonably conclude that this mark of reproach was directed against one of the predecessors of Mandouftep ; and we must therefore endeavour, if possible, to ascertain whether it was against Mandou-ei I. or Man- dou-ei II. According to my view of the subject, I should suppose him to have been Mandou-ei II. Because, if public indignation had been roused against the first Mandou-ei, it would have been expressed against him, and him only, and not extended to his innocent successor; and therefore we should expect to find the name of this latter respected and intact on those monuments which were either raised by his order, or to his memory, just as we have seen the monument of the Pharaoh Man- douftep. Because it is not likely that national hatred would have continued unabated for the space of seven centuries, and been shewn against I i 482 LECTURE XIII. Mandou-ei the Second, merely because he hap- pened to bear the name of his detested predeces- sor. But this is not the case ; for we find even the name of this second Mandou-ei to have under- gone the same mutilation. In the obelisk which some of the Caesars had removed to Rome, and Pope Sixtus V. had caused to be placed before the Porta del Popolo, the figurative character of Man- dou has been equally cancelled in the name of this prince, and the inscriptions of the Sallustian obelisk, which are but an indifferent copy, made by a Roman artist, of the beautiful sacred inscrip- tions engraved on the Flammian, exhibit the hiero- glyphical character of Mandou, disfigured, and almost erased ; and in fact where this character was, there is a hollow more strongly marked than for any of the remaining signs. This is a very curious and important fact, which, according to my opinion, proves that the disfiguring and mutilation of the figurative signs of Mandou, must have been posterior to the reign of Man- dou-ei I., and anterior to that of Mandouftep. But it may be objected, if Mandou-ei II. had been the Pharaoh who had excited the indignation of his subjects, why should they have exhibited the same feeling of indignation, and mutilated the hieroglyphical inscriptions bearing the name of his predecessor Mandou-ei I., who had been dead seven centuries before ? To this objection it may be answered, that popular fury and popular resent- ment is blind and uncontrolable ; and we have no LECTURE Xlll. 483 reason to suppose the Egyptians to have been more reasonable and more scrutinizing than the rest of mankind. If the Pharaoh Mandou-ei II. had really given to his people a sufficient cause to detest his memory, and to erase even his name from the mo- numents on which it had been engraved, it is by no means improbable, nor indeed contrary to our nature, to suppose, that in consequence of their resentment and vengeance, the Egyptians had wished to expunge from their annals, and in fact totally annihilated, the very name of the detested Pharaoh, so that on no public monument should be found the figurative signs which might renew the memory of his name. This very violence of popular fury may lead us to suspect that the cause which produced it must have been very great ; and as we know nothing so remarkable that happened during the reign of this prince as the Exodus of the Israelites, and the expulsion of the Hyk-shos, it is not improbable that this cause had been fur- nished by the Israelites themselves. Against this supposition it may be urged, that if, according to the hypothesis of Mr. Faber, the Shepherds had been the oppressors of the Egyp- tians, as well as of the Israelites, why should these latter share with their oppressors the hatred of the people ? Under these circumstances, it seems that both the Egyptians and the Israelites would have made common cause, and joined heart and hand against their tyrants ; but they never would have thought of turning their strength against one I i 2 484. LECTURE XIII. another, for it would have been the greatest folly to destroy their friends and fellow-sufferers : and if so, why should the Egyptians have manifested on their monuments towards the Israelites, the same hatred which they bore towards the Shepherds ? and, therefore, why should we find the Israelites exhibited in the same abject and humiliating pos- ture as the Shepherds, and why should their images have been drawn upon the soles of the shoes of the Egyptians ? This objection is more specious than just. You remember that, according to Manetho, the Israel- ites called to their assistance the expelled Shep- herds ; and though afterwards they might have become the victims and the slaves of their allies, still the Egyptians could never forget that their own sufferings were the consequence of this first step of the Israelites. This consideration alone was sufficient to stifle in their hearts every feeling of compassion for their fellow-sufferers, and even persuade the Egyptians to extend to them the indignation they felt towards their oppressors ; for in point of fact, the Israelities had been the first and only cause that had brought on the land of Egypt and its wretched inhabitants, the devasta- tion and misery produced by the second incursion of the Shepherds. To this powerful reason another might have been added, arising from the vanity of the Pha- raohs, or the flattery of the courtiers, who, perhaps, joined the Israelites to the conquered enemies of LECTURE XIII. 485 their country for the sake of giving a greater degree of splendour to the victories, the memory of which their monuments were intended to preserve. But, it may be repHed, admitting that the na- tional indignation towards the Shepherds might have been extended to the Israelites for having invited them to come to their assistance; and admitting that the Exodus of these latter took place under the reign of Mandou-ei II. there is no possible reason to account for the hatred which the Egyptians exhibited against this prince, who, after all, had nothing to do with the Shepherds ; because, if these had been the oppressors of the Egyptians, as well as of the Israelites, so as to excite the wrath of the Almighty, who overpowered them at last in the Red Sea, no cause can be assigned for the indignation of the people against the Pharaoh Mandou-ei ; for he either had no share whatever in the transaction, or must have directed his exertions in favour of his subjects, and against the common enemies of his country. We must, therefore, conclude, that either the Exodus of the Israelites did not take place during the reign of this prince, or that the cause which prompted the Egyptians to erase the name of this Pharaoh from the monuments, had no connexion whatever with the Israelites. I am obliged to acknowledge the force of this difficulty ; the only one, in fact, which appears to overturn the supposition of the Shepherd kings being the oppressors of the Israelites, and their 486 LECTURE XIH. monarch the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea ; for, admitting that the hatred of the Egyptians against the name of Mandou had been directed, not against the god, but against the Pharaoh, we are at a loss to accomit for so much national indignation, but by the simple supposition that he was the monarch who had brought upon his people the evils recorded in Scripture, and had been the leader of the army that perished in the Red Sea. Notwithstanding, however, so gi'eat an objec- tion, we ought to consider that we know so little of the Egyptian history of this period, and that little from the fragments of Manetho ; these have not reached us entire, but much mutilated and altered by his antagonists, who quoted him for the sake of proving, contrary to his own assertions, that the Hyk-shos were no other than the Jews. We must, therefore, pause before we lay aside the mass of evidence and facts which I have de- tailed to you merely because we cannot account for the expression of national indignation which the Egyptians had manifested against Mandou-ei II. But whether we deny or admit the supposition in regard to the mutilation of characters which I have just mentioned ; that is, whether we deny or admit that the king of the Hyk-shos, and not the monarch of Egypt, was the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea ; the validity of the com- putation which fixes on the reign of the Pharaoh Mandou-ei II. as the era in which the Exodus took LECTURE XIII. 487 place, remains equally unaffected and established ; for the account we have from Manetho, mutilated as it is, has been acknowledged to be true by the most accredited historians ; and we must, as far as it goes, consider it as a true and faithful represen- tation of the events that happened at the time. The Egyptian monuments also command our be- lief; their authority and genuineness are undenia- ble ; they, as well as their historian, explain events, and account for facts which are either shortly related by, or merely hinted at, in the sacred books of Genesis and Exodus. How, then, is it possible to reject such a mass of direct as well as collateral evidence which presses upon our minds ? The question, after all, is a simple question of chronology, resting upon data which are generally admitted. We have but to count 430 years from Abraham first visiting Egypt to the Exodus, and compare the result with the statement of Mane- tho, from the first irruption of the Shepherds, to their final expulsion. And whether we follow the reckoning of the Hebrew text, or of the Septuagint, I do not see how we can deny that the Pharaoh Amenophis was the prince who admitted Israel and his family into Egypt. This being the case, we have but to reckon 215 years from this period downwards, through the whole series of the princes who succeeded Amenophis, and the consequence is undeniable ; for these 215 years terminate at the time of the Pharaoh Mandou-ei. Perhaps the monuments will, ere long, supply 10 488 LECTURE XIH. the deficiency of history ; and this inquiry, which is at present surrounded with so much difficulty, will then appear simple and clear, even to the most in- attentive reader. For one thing, however, I may be permitted to express my regret, and that is, that the luckless fate which has attended many of my pursuits, has still, on this occasion, exercised its malignant influence. I had ventured to write on this subject to ChampoUion ; and that amiable scholar, with the readiness that always accompa- nies high talent and real knowledge, had been kind enough to collect for me some important mate- rials in answer to the questions that I had put to him. But my evil genius was still on the watch ; the friend I had commissioned, to obtain Cham- poUion's answer, not happening to call at the mo- ment, ChampoUion, in the hurry and confusion of his departure for Egypt, forgot both my questions and his answers, and the valuable information never reached me. Notwithstanding, however, such a loss, wishing to gratify the repeated instances of my friends, I have endeavoured, to the best of my power, to collect and to state as shortly as I could, what has been written, and what my thoughts are on this most interesting point of ancient history ; a point which hitherto has baffled the efforts of men much my superiors in regard to natural talent, and solid and extensive knowledge. With this inquiry we close, for the present, our Lectures on hieroglyphics. On this curious sub- ject more still remains to be said ; and I am sorry LECTURE XIII. 489 that want of time does not permit me to read to you three or four more Lectures, which I have already compiled. They will supply us with some of the materials for our next course. I shall then exhibit to you the alphabet of the demotic as well as hieratic letters; and explain the method dis- covered by Champolhon, how the Egyptians turned hieroglyphic into demotic characters. I have also to offer to your consideration, in a more regular and detailed form, what I said in the very first year of my lecturing, and which I have occasion- ally repeated in my subsequent courses concerning the mysteries of Isis ; the doctrines which they inculcated ; the trials of the aspirants ; the length of their probation ; and the mode which was pur- sued by the priesthood to ensure the inviolability of the secret. This account will lead us to the investigation of another subject equally connected with hieroglyphics, and extremely interesting in its nature; — I mean, the origin of idolatry : and if the multiplicity of my avocations allows me sufficient leisure, I mean to turn my attention to the table of Abydos, and dedicate one or more Lectures to explain its contents. But before we part, for the sake of those whom I see here for the last time, and who perhaps will continue to pursue the study of hieroglyphics and Egyptian antiquities, I think it necessary to warn you all never to form too hasty a judgment in regard to any real or apparent discrepancy which you may find between the Egyptian monuments. 490 LECTURE XIII. and the venerable account of our sacred Scriptures. I warn you still more against the perusal of those books which tend to shake our belief, by attacking the veracity of the Mosaic account, at least, until your judgment has acquired a proper degree of ma- turity, and your mind has been sufhciently stored with proper and wholesome knowledge. From decidedly immoral books I know you will turn away with disgust ; and I even hope that you will immediately lay aside those which, under the alluring colours of fashion, have the same tendency. The descrip- tion of vice and immorality can never occupy the mind of a well-bred scholar ; their images, not- withstanding the high pohsh of language, are too coarse to fix for a moment the attention of a gen- tleman. It is not against these books that I am talking : my warning is directed towards another and more dangerous sort of pubhcations, which mislead the unwary by the imposing name of phi- losophy, which discuss subjects above the capacity of the human mind ; which go on carefully collect- ing every little discrepancy, every minute difference that can be found or imagined in the several books of the sacred writings, for the sake of attacking the veracity of the whole, and bringing into con- tempt the authority of the Gospel. Against these books, I repeat it, I can never sufficiently warn you. The difference, however striking, that can be found in the account of the circumstances attending any fact, believe me, is not a sufficient reason for disbelieving that fact. LECTURE XIII. 491 Sound criticism and a more extensive reading will soon reconcile these apparent contradictions. The best authenticated histories are full of them ; and yet most of these histories are the productions of eye-witnesses ; of men who had a share in the transactions they relate ; of pious and honourable individuals, who had neither a wish nor a reason to conceal the truth, and most of them men of great mental acquirements, and in every respect fitted to do ample justice to then: subject; and yet what a difference in the relations of these his- torians ! Sometimes, even, what manifest contra- dictions ! Do we then say, that what they relate is false ? Do we disbelieve their recitals, and dis- regard the whole as a tissue of fables ? And yet this is precisely the mode that these pretended philosophers adopt, when they speak of the Chris- tian rehgion. They wish to extinguish the hght of the Gospel, for the sake of introducing the light of reason. Light of reason indeed ! In our Lec- ture on the origin of idolatry, you will hear into what a dreadful state this boasted light of our reason led the whole of mankind, previous to the publica- tion of the Gospel. You will then see the excesses which all nations have committed; the terrible and disgusting consequences which have followed the aberration of human reason. - From the his- torical picture which I shall then endeavour to draw ; from the short account of the religious revo- lutions which have happened amongst all nations ; from the brief examination we shall make of all 492 LECTURE XIII. ages ; we shall only learn the history of our errors, of our follies, and of our abominations. In one corner of the universe, one single nation, one peo- ple alone possessed sure and proper notions of the Supreme Being, and of the moral duties belonging to man. Every where else we shall find stupidity, wanderings, and darkness. It is true, that in their origin the mysteries of Isis might have been esta- blished for the sake of preserving the right idea of the Deity ; for the sake of transmitting to posterity the memory of those events which so deeply in- terested the fate of man : but in progress of time even these mysteries became polluted, corrupt, and abominable. The priests of Egypt, as they be- came, in point of time, the distant successors of the primitive Hierophantes, were no longer the preservers and vouchers of truth, but the teachers of fable, and the heralds of absurdity. The true God, the God of all nations, was forgotten, or mis- represented ; his indivisible and unchangeable es- sence was divided amongst as many dependent and changeable gods as there were upon earth and in the heavens creatures whom he himself had cre- ated. The most extraordinary deities, both male and female, had taken the place of the most per- fect of all Beings ; men paid divine honours to animals, to the ox, to the dog, to the cat, and the crocodile ; incense was offered by the cunning or deluded priesthood, to the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth ; and a great portion of man- kind paid adoration and homage to senseless trees. LECTURE XIII. 493 and even to the offensive onions ; the empty names of fortune and fear, the worst passions of our na- ture, were deified ; and a whole host of wise men, at the head of their respective nations, were seen on their knees before grotesque figures, which perhaps the artist himself had ridiculed whilst he was working them, but which he himself adored after they were finished. Our own forefathers prostrated before hideous and shameless images ; heroes consulting the feeding of chickens ; the flight of birds striking terror into the hearts of the bravest ; and every where infamous worship, im- pure offerings, gods stained with the most foul crimes, cruel sacrifices, human victims, vice on the altars, pollution in the temples, and the hearts of men possessed by the vilest passions, which, in the present state of social civihzation, and by the light of the Gospel, we can scarcely believe possible to belong to our nature. Indeed, if there be one benefit greater than another, for which we ought to be truly thankful, it is undoubtedly that of being born under the Christian dispensation. THE END. ERRATA. PAOB.I.INE. 3 2\/or Pilgrim read Pilgrimes 16 24 — Ptolomies read Ptolemies 18 14 — Tsaky read Tape 78 31 — fig. 1. read fig. 3. 88 21 — fig. 25. and 26. read fig. 26. and 27. — 27 — fig. 26. read fig. 27. — 29 — fig. 25. rearf fig. 26. 110 9 — Amouse reflrf Amonse 112 86 — Table 2. read Table 3. 127 1 — Emon read Amon 132 1 — fig. 2. read fig. n. 151 2 — Agyptischeii read .^gyptischen — 4 — Baacliraan read Bachman — 1 1 — Tme read Same PAOS. LINB- 181 6/or ranis read mai 213 1 — Lugsor rearf Louqsor 235 12 — Exprimant reflfZexprimunt 2t9 11 — This Almanack was readTh'is Al- manak [Table 10] was 283 19 — nuoe read noue 338 Myara read Mysara 355 4 — No/uoi read Nojuor — 7 ^ Nome read Nomes 357 24 — Psammeitus read Psammeticus 377 2 — second read first 439 13 — have been decyphered read have been afterwards decyphered. 479 31 •- ovala read oval LONDON ; PRINTED BY K. GILBERT, ST. John's square. /■,,- ,■ ,vj:l \\\^x\ ■ V » 1 _fc, - .111 IL^i f^^^ IT ^ II xrrl iff •^- l^'J - ^JLi^\^ ,'S^-M 9iJ^ /l°'iili!!:i:i^lll! IKlllElBtiiDlGlUinPIHIllCAlL .All ,rilllA'.BIK'lI'. VV_-1 1 %4**J -J!l^-^*-r_J \\ n\\\\\ II ## IP r H DH '^^-v.Q, Vi^^ fl»lvCPiL'J^ -ilf^flrt:;^ ffl :nr^t4. ftl rif^ rres 1^^ !51Aiil\(2l s^T it3;P0#n^^ag* MV" X SH TiTtT TiTiT l -l'l C r© ^ f A &: i_0 ? r 'f I 'V ^^ V '^ IHIN W v ^ o ^ III ■>». jjj ■^ cn <) !& wFf^dil^^SHlii c VJ3 ^ ^^' ri t t MS- .1/ J; ,; r r />A/S^A /VW>^v ,111 ? / ^ X r-/ 2d..i.ull,,Li}ho^C.amh,-,.i,if II y (T ^1 ll4 ^'"l H 1 r' r fin. 7. C x«^v^v^ I I I n /^l fci oniV; l^nn;,^B^nn mi r^^nKctlkhi^na fl tin «n anAn An rt aaa ft e AAAnAnllAnnrtnn fl nl^nnl^nn^nAnnnAnnnft A |1 r\anAAA l ianannnnolfAHLl^nn ff fi An aA A t