1885.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 61 



In the annals of philological research we seek in vain for a 

 study that can lay juster claim to a first position, for any that 

 has made more rapid and important progress in a short time 

 than that of the Ancient Egyptian language. It was reserved 

 to our century to solve the mystery of a language that had for 

 more than one thousand years baffled the ingenuity and most 

 searching inquiry of great men and scholars. Fifty years ago 

 still witnessed the first beginnings of a science struggling for 

 existence amid a chaos of opinions, while leaning for support 

 on an unpretending black stone bearing a trilingual inscription. 

 Yet this weak support was destined afterwards to become the 

 very foundation of this study, and the discovery of this stone 

 at Rosetta in 1799 inaugurated a new era in archaeological re- 

 search and scientific investigation. Many years of labor passed 

 l)efore the correct alphabet was determined and then, with the 

 help of Italian scholars, the Coptic was resuscitated from the 

 darkness that was gathering around it, being then at the brink 

 of utter decay. The Egyptian words were then carefully com- 

 pared with the Coptic, and at last the meaning of words deter- 

 mined ii'respective of the Greek translation of the Rosetta 

 Stone, whose version was nevertheless fully corroborated. To 

 one man above all belongs the honor of having watched over 

 the early stages of the study with a jealous and loving eye, the 

 illustrious founder of the science of Egyptology, Francois 

 Charapollion (1791-1832). At the time of his death the study 

 had made a most remarkable progress and found worthy suc- 

 cessors to build up the mighty structure we have now. To 

 another man, Richard Lepsius (1810-1884), one of the greatest 

 scholars and profoundest thinkers of this century, we owe the 

 critical examination of Champollion's system and the gradual 

 consummation of the work in its present form. His incessant 

 labors have given to the study of Egj'ptian its prominent posi- 

 tion in philology, in literature, in history, in the arts and exact 

 scdences. Through him the knowledge gained of ancient 

 Egypt has been treasured up in the books of scholars, has eli(!it- 



