THE ROSETTA INSORIPTION. 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 eelebrated 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 discoy- 
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 
