PHONETIC SYSTEM. 323 



tus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Domitian, &c. Thus, to 

 speak briefly, we find, on one hand, the lively discussion, 

 to which the age of these monuments had given rise, 

 completely terminated ; on the other, we observe it estab- 

 lished beyond question that under the Roman dominion 

 hieroglyphics were still in full use on the banks of the 

 Nile. 



The alphabet which had given such unhoped for re- 

 sults, whether applied to the great Obelisks at Karnac, 

 or to other monuments which are also recognized as be- 

 ing of the age of the Pharaohs, presents to us the names 

 of many other kings of this ancient race ; the names of 

 Egyptian deities ; we can say more, substantives, adjec- 

 tives, and verbs of the Coptic language : Young was 

 then deceived when he regarded the phonetic hiero- 

 glyphics as a modern invention ; when he advanced that 

 they had served solely for the transcription of proper 

 names foreign to Egypt. M. de Guignes, and above all, 

 M. Etienne Quatremere, established, on the contrary, a 

 real fact and one of great importance, that the reading 

 of the inscriptions of the Pharaohs is corroborated by 

 irresistible proofs, while they show that the existing 

 Coptic language was that of the ancient subjects of 

 Sesostris. 



We now know the facts ; I may then confine myself to 

 confirm, by a few short observations, the consequences 

 which appear to me to result from them. 



Discussions of priority, even under the dominion of 

 national prejudices, will have become embittered if they 

 can be reduced to fixed rules, but in certain cases the 

 first idea is every thing ; in others, the details offer the 

 chief difficulties ; sometimes the merit seems to consist 

 less in the conception of a theory than in its demonstra- 



