72 DR. 



in such instances, may be more aptly compared to a spiral, or 

 to an algebraical approximation ; since, by assuming certain 

 incorrect suppositions, not too remote from the truth, we may 

 render them, by means of a continual repetition of the calcu- 

 lation, more and more accurate, until at length the error is 

 rendered wholly inconsiderable ; and in this manner we often 

 satisfy the conditions of a problem, which it would be im- 

 practicable to solve by a more direct method *." 



Such being the mode of research determined upon, the 

 grounds for assuming the suppositions which were to be the 

 first re-agents employed, (to adopt a term from the phraseology 

 of Chemical investigation,) were only to be found in what the 

 Greeks and Romans had handed down to us of the history, my- 

 thology, religious ordinances, customs and civil institutions of 

 Egypt. For this purpose Dr. Young examined, compared, 

 and brought together into a proper form for his use, every- 

 thing important on these subjects which had been preserved ; 

 and he also made himself familiar with the remains of the old 

 Egyptian language, as they are preserved in the Coptic and 

 Thebaic versions of the Scriptures. Thus he arranged the 

 apparatus requisite for the investigation. Being thus pre- 

 pared for the inquiry, he proceeded (in the year 1814?) first 

 to examine the enchorial inscription, and afterwards the sacred 

 characters, on the pillar of Rosetta. By an attentive and me- 

 thodical comparison of the different parts with each other, he 

 had sufficiently deciphered the whole, in the course of a few 

 months, to be able to send to the Society of Antiquaries a trans- 

 lation of each of the Egyptian inscriptions considered .sepa- 

 rately, distinguishing the contents of the different lines with as 

 much precision as his materials would then enable him to ob- 

 tain f. 



The parallelism of Dr. Young's process for deciphering 

 the Egyptian inscriptions on the Rosetta stone, with a pro- 

 cess in experimental science, directed specifically to the ob- 

 ject of ascertaining the cause of some particular phenomenon, 

 will however be rendered more fully evident by reciting his 

 own detail of its progress. 



" Having acquired some preliminary notions of the mytho- 

 logy and history, and chronology and institutions, of ancient 

 Egypt, we may proceed to the discussion of its written lan- 

 guage and literature, as far as they are likely to be recovered 

 from existing monuments ; and, first of all, we must inquire 

 into the best mode of obtaining some satisfactory conclusions 



* Article EGYPT : Supp. Encyc. Brit. vol. iv. p. 43. 

 t Dr. Young's " Account of some recent Discoveries in Hieioglyphical 

 Literature and Egyptian Antiquities," p. 11. 



