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HIEROGLYPHICS. 



visible image of the tiling signified, since impressions 

 received by the eye are almost always much more 

 lively than those conveyed by sounds. A play, read 

 in a room, does not excite our sorrow or our mirth 

 so iinidi as if we see it represented, and a hundred 

 things may well be said or written, which would be 

 considered highly improper or disgusting if painted 

 or drawn. This explains what Champollion says of 

 the remarkable effect which hieroglyphics have on 

 one who understands them, because they include 

 both symbolic and phonetic characters. 



We will now give a survey of the hieroglyphic 

 system. The characters used by the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, before their conversion to Christianity (after 

 which they adopted the Greek alphabet, with a few 

 supplementary letters), were threefold; 1. hiero- 

 glyphic ; 2. hieratic ; 3. demotic. The first were 

 composed of images of visible objects ; the second, 

 of rude and indistinct outlines of the whole, or of 

 parts of such images ; and the third, of a still farther 

 reduction of such outlines in a similar manner. The 

 first kind, from which the others were derived, 

 was originally a real picture-writing, representing 

 ideas by their visible images when possible, or by 

 obvious symbols when any direct representation was 

 impossible. This mode of writing is only suited for 

 a nation in the first stages of civilization, and man 

 would soon discover some more complicated, but 

 more perfect mode of representing what is usually 

 expressed by words, of speaking, in short, by means 

 of visible signs. But words are combinations of 

 sounds, and the next step, therefore, was to devise 

 some method of expressing sounds. As soon as such 

 a device was adopted, any combination of sounds, 

 that is, any word, whether the name of a visible 

 object or of a mere abstraction, could be immediately 

 represented to the eye. The Egyptians who were, 

 as every day shows more clearly, the most civilized 

 of ah 1 nations known to us at a very remote period, 

 arrived at this point very early. They selected 

 several common and well known hieroglyphics, such 

 as immediately suggested some word of frequent 

 occurrence, and used them to express the initial 

 sound of that word, or, as we should say, its first let- 

 ter. The more simple outlines or fragments of 

 these hieroglyphics, used in the hieratic charac- 

 ter, would therefore have the appearance, as well as 

 perform the functions, of letters; and, when rounded 

 off into the demotic, epistolographic, enchorial (q. v.) 

 or running-hand, would lose all resemblance to the 

 figures from which they were originally derived. It 

 is plain that these last characters might entirely 

 supersede the use of hieroglyphics, or other symbols, 

 from the facility with which they were formed. We 

 shall see that they actually did so, for the ordinary 

 purposes of life. Thus the demotic characters were, 

 as has been now settled beyond doubt, nearly, if 

 not strictly, alphabetical. The hieroglyphic char- 

 acter was thus rendered capable of expressing sounds, 

 and consequently words, independently of pictured 

 signs. These signs are, according to Champollion's 

 great work, Precis du Systeme Hierogtyphique (Paris, 

 1824), divisible into three distinct classes : 1. figura- 

 tive signs, such as were the images of the things 

 expressed ; 2. symbolic ; 3. phonetic, or expressive 

 of sound. At a later period, probably, a fourth class 

 was brought into use ; that of enigmatical symbols, 

 derived either from some very remote affinity between 

 the object represented and the idea implied, or formed 

 by a combination of different figures, apparently in- 

 capable of being thus united. We will mention 

 here, in the outset, that Champollion's object, in the 

 work above referred to, is to demonstrate the six 

 following important points : 



1. That the phonetic-hieroglyphical alphabet can 



be applied with success to the legends of every epoch 

 indiscriminately ; 



2. Which is, in fact, the consequence of the first 

 statement, that this phonetic alpliabet is the true key 

 of the whole hieroglyphical system ; 



3. That the ancient Egyptians constantly employed 

 this alphabet to represent the sounds of the words in 

 their language ; 



4. That all hieroglyphical legends and inscriptions 

 are composed principally of signs purely alpliabeti- 

 cal; 



5. That these alphabetical signs were of three 

 different kinds, the demotic, hieratic and the hiero- 

 glyphical, strictly so called ; and, 



6. That the principles of the graphic system, which 

 he has laid down, and which he proves by a great 

 variety of applications and examples, are precisely 

 those which were in use among the ancient Egyptians. 



As all visible objects, with all their parts, and in 

 almost any position, besides an endless variety of 

 arbitrary combinations, come within the scope of the 

 hieroglyphic draughtsman, it might, at first, be sup- 

 posed that the number of the characters would be 

 almost unlimited; but the necessity of limitation 

 must soon have been felt, for unless the sense as- 

 signed to each character was fixed, the reader would 

 be lost in vague conjectures, and, unless the number 

 of characters was confined within certain bounds, no 

 memory could retain them all. The whole number 

 therefore observed by M. Champollion, after more 

 than twenty years' study, was only 864, of which 

 perhaps some are duplicates. He arranges them in 

 the eighteen following classes : 



Celestial bodies, 10 



Human figures in various positions, .... 1*0 



Human limbs, taken separately, I 



Wild quadrupeds, 24 



Domestic quadrupeds 



Limbs of animals 22 



Birds, either whole or in parts, 50 



Reptiles, either whole or in parts, 30 



Insects, 



Vegetables, plants, flowers, and fruits, ... 



Buildings 



Furniture, 



Coverings for feet and legs, head-dresses, weapons, 1 

 ornaments, and sceptres, > 



Tools and instruments of various sorts, 



VHSP, cups, and the like, 



Geometrical figures, 



Fantastic forms, 



Total 



60 

 24 



100 

 80 



150 

 30 

 20 

 60 



~864 



The figures were arranged in columns, vertical or 

 horizontal, and grouped together, as circumstances 

 required, so as to leave no spaces unnecessarily 

 vacant, which of course would often have happened, 

 had they written their signs successively, as we do 

 our letters, since the signs differ so much in shape 

 and size. Here we must remember that the hiero- 

 glyphic writing is eminently monumental. Its special 

 use was in inscriptions that were engraved or sculp- 

 tured upon public edifices. It is also found executed 

 in similar ways, upon objects which preserve the 

 religious or domestic usages of ancient Egypt It is 

 delineated in numerous manuscripts ; also on the 

 wooden coffins of the mummies, and, finally, upon 

 harder substances, such as baked or enamelled earth, 

 &c. Hence, both from the nature of the signs em- 

 ployed, and from the situations in which they were 

 chiefly used, the hieroglyphic writing is a species of 

 painting, and the reason of the rule just stated, is 

 therefore easy to be conceived. Beauty of appear- 

 ance was never forgotten, and Champollion, in his 

 letters from Egypt, dwells on the fine appearance of 

 these various objects, executed with admirable ex- 

 actness, and often painted with colours, which still 



