Elucidation of early Egyptian History, 1 77 



tind occasionally in tlie composition of the same word. The 

 formal Egyptian writing, therefore, such as we *See it still 

 existing on the monuments of the country, was a series of por- 

 traits - oF physicp.1 and material objects, of which « a small 

 •proportion had a symbolic meaning, a still smaller proportion 

 a figurative meaning, but the great body were phonetic or 

 alphabetical signs : and to these portraits, sculptured or painted 

 with sufficient iidelity to leave no doubt of the object repre- 

 sented, the name of hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, has 

 been attached from their earliest historic notice. 



The manuscripts of the same ancient period make us ac- 

 quainted with two other forms of writing practised by the an- 

 cient Egyptians, both apparently distinct from the hieroglyphic, 

 but which, on careful examination, are found to be its immediate 

 derivatives; every hieroglyphic having its corresponding sign in 

 the hieratic, or writing of the priests, in which the funeral 

 rituals, forming a large portion of the manuscripts, are princi- 

 pally composed ; and in the demotic, called also the enchorial, 

 which was employed for all more ordinary and popular usages. 

 The characters of the hieratic are for the most part obvious 

 running imitations, or abridgments of the corresponding hiero- 

 glyphics ; but in the demotic, which is still further removed 

 from the original type, the derivation is less frequently and 

 less obviously traceable. In the hieratic, fewer figurative or 

 symbolic signs are employed than in the hieroglyphic ; their 

 absence being supplied by means of the phonetic or alpha- 

 betical characters, the words being spelt instead of figured ; 

 and this is still more the case in the demotic, which is, in con- 

 sequence, almost entirely alphabetical. 



After the conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity, the 

 ancient mode of writing their language fell into disuse ; and 

 an alphabet was adopted in substitution, consisting of the 

 twenty-five Greek letters, with six additional signs expressing 

 articulations and aspirations unknown to the Greeks, the cha- 

 racters for which were retained from the demotic. This 

 is the Coptic alphabet, in which the Egyptian appears as a 

 written language in the Coptic books and manuscripts pre- 

 served in our libraries ; and in which, consequently, the lan- 

 guage of the inscriptions on the monuments may be studied, • 

 JULY — OCT. 1827. N 



