THE ROSETTA INSCRIPTION. 319 



or at least a transcription in two sorts of characters, 

 anciently in use on the banks of the Nile. 



This Rosetta stone, since so celebrated, and which M. 

 Boussard presented to the Institute of Cairo, was taken 

 from that body at the period when the French army 

 evacuated Egypt. It was preserved, however, in the 

 British Museum, where it figured, as Thomas Young 

 said, as a monument of British valour. Putting valour 

 out of the question, the celebrated philosopher might 

 have added, without too much partiality, that this invalu- 

 able trilingual monument thus bears some witness to the 

 advanced views which guided all the details of the mem- 

 orable expedition into Egypt, as also to the indefatigable 

 zeal of the distinguished savants whose labours, often 

 carried on under the fire of the forts, have added so 

 much to the glory of their country. The importance of 

 the Rosetta stone struck them, in fact, so forcibly, that in 

 order not to abandon this precious treasure to the adven- 

 turous chances of a sea voyage, they earnestly applied 

 themselves, from the first, to reproduce it, by copies, by im- 

 pressions taken in the way of printings from engravings, 

 by moulds in plaster or sulphur. We must add that 

 antiquaries of all countries became first acquainted with 

 the Rosetta stone from the designs given by the French 

 savants. 



One of the most illustrious members of the Institute, M. 

 Silvestre de Sacy, entered first in 1802 on the career 

 which the trilingual inscription opened to the investiga- 

 tions of philologists. He only occupied himself on the 

 Egyptian text in common characters. He there discov- 

 ered the groups which represent the different proper 

 names, and their phonetic nature. Thus in one of two 

 inscriptions, at least, the Egyptians had the signs of 



