214 Biographical Sketch of Dr Prichard. 



of Dr Pi'ichard and myself, and who is also an Egyptian anti- 

 quarian, for the following notice of these works. 



The discoveries of Dr Young, founded upon the insci'iption 

 of the Rosetta stone, and the labours of De Sacy and Akerblad, 

 had awakened great interest in Egyptian research in the minds 

 of the learned of Europe. The great work of the French 

 Scientific Commission, chief product of Napoleon's Egyptian 

 expedition, had revealed the grandeur and extent of the re- 

 mains of antiquity preserved in the valley of the Nile. Tlie 

 publication of M. Champollion's Letter to M. Dacier, in 1822, 

 containing his hieroglyphic alphabet, gave promise that the 

 obscurity which had so long enveloped the monuments of 

 ancient Eg\ pt would at length be dissipated. But, at the time 

 whenDrPi'ichard publishedhis "Analysis,' the interpretation 

 of the Egyptian historical monuments was a matter of hope 

 and expectation only. It was not until the following year 

 (1824), that Champollion's important work, the ' Precis du 

 SystemeHieroglyphique des AnciensEgyptiens,' was present- 

 ed to the public. The labours of Dr Prichai'd were there- 

 fore unassisted by and wholly independent of those monumen- 

 tal records which form the groundwork of recent Egyptian 

 research. 



But Dr Prichard was no mere Egyptologer. He took his 

 stand upon a higher and broader ground, and treated the sub- 

 ject of Egyptian histoi-y as a branch of general ethnology, — ^a 

 chapter in the great book of the Universal History of Mankind. 



In his own words, in the preface to the first edition of his 

 " Analysis," in 1823, the motive which originally induced him 

 " to enter on the inquiries contained in this work, was the de- 

 sire to elucidate, through the mythology of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, the relations of that people to other bi-anches of the 

 human family.'' It had frequently been asserted, and amongst 

 others, by Champollion, that the Egyptians were a peculiarly 

 African people, altogether distinct from the races of the 

 Asiatic continent, and even wholly separate in origin from 

 the rest of mankind. 



It was particularly necessary for Dr Prichard to examine 

 into the groundwork and foundation of such an opinion, so en- 



