POSSESSED OF LEARNING, BUT NOT OF SCIENCE. 7? 



ters*; from which it may with great probability be inferred, 

 either that he was unacquainted with Grotefend's researches, 

 notwithstanding his extensive reading in the philological litera- 

 ture of Germany, or that the really valuable part of those re- 

 searches was so disguised, by the imperfections already men- 

 tioned, as to have made no impression on his mind. Either 

 fact would support the inference that M. Grotefend's explana- 

 tions had not been generally received. 



In this state of the inquiry it was entered upon by M. Saint 

 Martin, of Paris, a zealous and skilful orientalist, who, 

 founding his investigation on what Grotefend had done, but 

 conducting it by a very different method, and with additional 

 resources, succeeded in proving, demonstratively, what had 

 only imperfectly appeared from the labours of the German 

 Professor, showing that the language expressed by the class 

 of Persepolitan characters examined, if not actually the Zen- 

 die, is the ancient Persian dialect nearly related to it ; and 

 determining, on satisfactory grounds, various philological and 

 historical questions connected with the subject. His results 

 were published in 1823, and have established the deciphering 

 of one class of the Persepolitan inscriptions, as a permanent 

 contribution to archaeological literature f. 



The four successive decipherers of the Cuneiform inscrip- 

 tions, possessing and prepared for the undertaking by extensive 

 learning alone, were thus occupied for the space of twenty-five 

 years, in producing about the same amount of aggregate ex- 

 planation, which a single inquirer, furnished, in addition to 

 the requisite learning, with the peculiar analytical and induc- 

 tive logic imparted by scientific research, had effected, with 

 respect to the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, in a few months. 



The deciphering of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and that of 

 the Cuneiform characters, cannot be regarded as rigorously 

 comparable ; but if we are authorized in concluding, from the 

 history of Dr. Young's researches, that his profound attain- 

 ments as a Mathematician and a Natural Philosopher, were 

 mainly instrumental in procuring his rapid and complete suc- 

 cess ; we may also infer, that the tardiness, and the compara- 

 tive indecision, in some of its earlier stages, of the Persepolitan 

 inquiry, were owing, in some considerable degree, to the want 



* See " Account," &c. ; as before quoted, p. 53. Collateral evidence to 

 the same effect will be found in the article " EGYPT", p. 51. 



j- The above sketch of the progress of the Persepolitan inquiry has been 

 drawn up chiefly from a paper in the Asiatic Journal for September, 1823, 

 containing translations of parts of M. Saint Martin's essay, and from a 

 paper, by the Rev. Mr. Kenrick, of York, in the Philosophical Magazine for 

 May, 1829. 



