586 Professor Tyndall [Jan. 22, 



the comparison might have been just. Arago himself gives his 

 reasons for entering the controversy, and they are these : — " que 

 I'interpretation cles hieroglyphes egyptiens est Tune des plus belles 

 decouvertes de notre siecle ; que Young a lui-meme mele mon nom 

 aux discussions dont elle a ete I'objet ; qu'examiner enfin, si la France 

 pent pretendre a ce nouveau tifcre de gloire, c'est agrandir la mission que 

 je remplis en ce moment, c'est faire acte de bon citoyen. Je sais 

 d'avance tout ce qu'on trouvera d'etroit dans ces sentimens ; je 

 n'ignore pas que le cosmopolitisme a son beau cote ; mais en verite, de 

 quel nom ne pourrais-je pas le stigmatiser si lorsque toutes les 

 nations voisines enumerent avec bonheur les decouvertes de leurs 

 enfans, il m'etait interdit de chercher dans cette enceinte memo 

 parmi des confreres dont je ne me permettrai pas de blesser la modeste, 

 la preuve que la France n'est pas degeneree, quelle aussi apporte 

 chaque annee son glorieux contingent dans le vaste depot des con- 

 naissances humaines." 



The Copley medal of the Eoyal Society of London had been 

 awarded to Arago in 1825, and on the 30th of November of that 

 year, on handing over the medal to the gentleman deputed to receive 

 it, Sir Humphry Davy, then President of the Society, had used the 

 following words : — " Fortunately science, like that nature to which it 

 belongs, is neither limited by time nor by space. It belongs to the 

 world, and is of no country and no age." I do not hesitate to say 

 that I prefer the sentiment of Davy to that of Arago. 



Still, even in France, Young did not lack defenders. M. de 

 Paravey, Inspecteur de I'Ecole Eoyale Polytechnique, for example, 

 speaking of himself in the third person, makes the following remarks 

 in a letter dated February 1835, six years after Young's death : — 

 " II y admira la science avec laquelle M. le Docteur Young avait 

 retabli la chronologic des Eois d'Egypte, ne commen9ant leur serie 

 qu'a la XVIII dynastie de Manethon, en regardant les series ante- 

 rieures comme inadmissibles ; resultats auxquels des travaux tout 

 differents avoient egalement conduit M. de Paravey : et, en outre, il 

 jugea, et il juge encore, que le premier il entroit d'une maniere 

 plausible et sure dans I'interpretation des hieroglyphes, fournissant 

 ainsi a M. Champollion lejeune une clef sans laquelle ce dernier n'auroit 

 jamais pu arriver aux resultats importants et curieux que dejpuis il a 

 ohtenu" 



In the same sense, and almost in the same words, writes Sir Gard- 

 ner Wilkinson, an ardent admirer of Champollion, and his chivalrous 

 defender against the assaults made upon him after his death. After 

 speaking of him as the kindler into a flame of the spark obtained by 

 Young, he continues thus : — " Had Champollion been disposed to 

 give more credit to the value and originality of Dr. Young's re- 

 seiirches, and to admit that the real discovery of the hey to the hiero- 

 glyphics, which in his dexterous hand proved so useful in unlocking 

 those treasures, was the result of his [Young's] labours, he would un- 



