70 Rev. Edward Hincks on the Egyptian Stele, or Tablet. 



rally be supposed to be the reverse order of their reigns. Amenemhe II. occurred 

 first ; it was followed by Amenemhe I., and that by Osortasen I. I observed, 

 however, that there was a great deal of matter intervening between these royal 

 names ; and I found, on examination, that this intervening matter was of such 

 a nature as completely to disprove the order of succession, which it had been 

 supposed to prove. The inscription stated that Nebhothph had been appointed 

 by Amenemhe 11., in the nineteenth year of his reign, a " Repha-He," with the 

 military government of a certain district ; the same rank and government having 

 been conferred on his father by Amenemhe I., and on his elder brother by 

 Osortasen I. Of course, Osortasen I. intervened between the two Amenemhes. 

 After this I became acquainted with a tablet in the Leyden Museum, the date 

 of which made " assurance doubly sure ;" being " the forty-fourth year of Osor- 

 tasen I., which is the second year of Amenemhe II." 



The importance of this inference, as setting aside the supposed series of 

 kings at Karnac, will, I hope, be accepted as an excuse for this digression. I will 

 only add, that of the kings preceding Amenemhe I., we know very little as to 

 the order, and nothing as to the length of their reigns. 



I have now completed the task which I had marked out for myself; and it is 

 my earnest wish that what I have said on this branch of Egyptian antiquities may 

 induce others of my countrymen to engage in the study of this interesting and 

 Important branch of literature. I trust that no preconceived opinion of the 

 Impossibility that hieroglyphic characters in ancient inscriptions should express 

 phonetically the words of a language will cause them to shut their eyes against 

 the fact that they do so. And I trust also that no unworthy national prejudice 

 will lead them to undervalue this field of discovery, because, though it may be 

 said to have been opened in England, its most successful cultivators have been 

 hitherto foreigners. I well remember the time, when the current of national 

 prejudice ran strong against what were contemptuously called " French Mathe- 

 matics ;" but the good sense of our countrymen at length prevailed, and those 

 branches which were once regarded as exclusively French, have been pursued 

 with as much success in England, and, I will add, in Ireland, as ever they were 

 in France. Let us adopt the same course in respect to hieroglyphical literature ; 

 and, in place of decrying the labours of Champollion, and undervaluing his won- 

 derful discoveries, let us apply ourselves to follow them up ; correcting, as we go 



