318 HieroglypMcal Fragments, 



hetic value," by which foreign proper names were expressed. 



Nothing can possibly agree better than this with the opinions 

 which Dr. Young had long before published ; and which he 

 has since confirmed in his octavo volume ; and if Mr. Cham- 

 pollion's ideas upon this subject have sometimes appeared to 

 fluctuate, it has probably been more from a love of system, 

 and a wish to establish originality, than from any new disco- 

 veries that he can have made respecting these two modes of 

 writing in particular. 



What precise forms of characters may be supposed to an- 

 swer to the sense in which Mr. Champollion employs the word 

 demotic, cannot very easily be ascertained. It is remarkable 

 that his '^ SNE" is a group very commonly found in the 

 manuscripts of the Description de I'Egypte, which Mr. Cham- 

 pollion might possibly call demotic ; while it cannot be identi- 

 iied in the Enchorial Inscription of Rosetta. This is an 

 instance of the difficulty of finding appropriate terms where 

 we have not exact definitions. The difficulty is not avoided 

 by the use of the word Enchorial, except that it may with 

 perfect safety be applied to such inscriptions as are capable of 

 having any of their words identified with the inscription so 

 called on the pillar itself 



The verification of the chronology of Manetho must na- 

 turally be a work of time, even after the complete identification 

 of the names of the kings, which cannot yet be admitted to be 

 satisfactory. There is one discordance that it may be right 

 slightly to point out, as it is presented by Plate 43 of the 

 Hieroglyphics : we there find the 29th year of the Sesenchosis 

 of Manetho; and Manetho allots but 21 years to this king, 

 who was the first of his dynasty, and could not, therefore, like 

 Philadelphus, have continued any era from an earlier period. 



It is easy to observe, in comparing Mr. Cailliaud's copy of 

 the Tablet of Abydus, as published by Mr. Champollion, with 

 those of our countrymen, Mr. Bankes and Mr. Wilkinson^ 

 contained in the 47th plate of the Hieroglyphics, or with the 

 manuscript copy of Mr. Burton, how mugh more hastily the 

 French traveller had executed his task than any one of the 

 three Englishmen. 



