70 RAPID AND COMPLETE SUCCESS OF DR. YOUNG 



resulted from the successive labours of certain philologists in 

 Denmark, Germany, and France. With the first of these 

 achievements in ancient literature the subject now before us is 

 unconnected; but Dr. Young's researches afford a striking 

 proof of the power and efficacy of profound scientific knowledge 

 in exploring and developing recondite literary truth ; while 

 the progress of the discovery thht the Cuneiform characters are 

 those of a dialect nearly related to the Zendic, or ancient 

 language of Media, may be regarded, perhaps, as showing, 

 with what comparative difficulty such researches are brought 

 to a successful conclusion, when the peculiar tone of mind 

 imparted by scientific knowledge is wanting. 



The train of research by which Dr. Young succeeded in 

 withdrawing the veil of mystery in which the Literature of 

 Ancient Egypt had been for nearly twenty centuries concealed, 

 had much more resemblance to a profound investigation in 

 natural philosophy, than to an ordinary inquiry in philology. 

 Dr. Young's attainments were almost universal: "Mathematics 

 in the most abstruse recesses of modern improvements ; as- 

 tronomy, theoretical and practical ; experimental and mecha- 

 nical philosophy ; chemistry ; natural history ; ancient and 

 modern languages; philology; in addition to the regular 

 practice of medicine ; were carried to such an extent [by him] 

 that each might have been supposed to have exclusively oc- 

 cupied the full powers of his mind*." Mere scholars, of 

 equal or perhaps of superior acquirements, had repeatedly at- 

 tempted to solve the great Egyptian senigma, but had relin- 

 quished their endeavours in despair ; and hence we may infer 

 that Dr. Young was greatly indebted, for his success, and espe- 

 cially for the rapidity with which the fundamental steps of 

 his discovery were established, to the attainments in the ma- 

 thematical and physical sciences which he united with his 

 profound and varied learning. And if such attainments were 

 thus mainly contributive to success, in a philological inquiry 

 conducted by a man distinguished by such powerful talents 

 as Dr. Young, they must, a fortiori, be still more necessary 

 to persons of inferior natural ability, who may be led to un- 

 dertake the elucidation of recondite subjects in ancient lite- 

 rature. The modern discoveries in Egyptian Literature have 

 not yet become a branch of popular information ; and a mere 

 reference to the researches of Dr. Young, will, therefore, be 

 insufficient to support the opinion I have advanced. On this 

 account I will here introduce a rapid view of the history of 



* Mr. Davies Gilbert's Address to the Royal Society, at the Anniversary 

 Meeting in 1829. 



