822 THOMAS YOUNG. 
The labors of Champollion, as to the discovery of the 
phonetic value of hieroglyphics, are clear, distinct, and 
cannot involve any doubt. Each sign is equivalent to a 
single vowel or consonant. Its value is not arbitrary: 
every phonetic hieroglyphic is the image of a physical 
object whose name in the Egyptian language commences 
with the vowel or the consonant which it is wished to 
represent.* ‘ 
The alphabet of Champollion, once modelled from the 
Stone of Rosetta and two or three other monuments, 
enables us to read inscriptions entirely different ; for 
example, the name of Cleopatra on the obelisk of Philoé, 
long ago transported into England, and where Dr. Young, 
armed with his alphabet, could discover nothing. On the 
temple of Karnac, Champollion read twice the name of 
Alexander : on the Zodiac of Denderah, the title of a Ro- 
man emperor; on the grand edifice above which it is 
placed, the names and surnames of the emperors Augus- 
* This will become clear to every one, if we seek, by following the 
Egyptian system, to compose hieroglyphics in the French language. 
A may be represented by (agneau) a lamb; (aigle) an eagle; an ass, 
anemone, artichoke, &c. B by a balance, a whale (baleine); a boat, 
&c. C by cabana (badger); cheval (horse); cat, cedar, &c. E by 
épée (a sword), elephant, epagneul (spaniel), &c. Abbé then would 
be written in French hieroglyphics by putting any of the following 
figures in succession:—a lamb, a balance, a whale, an elephant. Or 
an eagle, a boat, a sword, &c. 
This kind of writing has some analogy, as we see, with the rebus in 
which confectioners wrap their bonbons, Thus we see at what stage 
these Egyptian priests were of whom antiquity has so much boasted, 
but who, we must say, have taught us so little. 
M. Champollion calls homophones all those signs which, representing 
the sante sound or éhe same articulation, can be substituted indiffer- 
ently for each other. In the actual state of the Egyptian alphabet I 
perceive six or seven homophone signs for A, and more than twelve 
for the Greek sigma.—Arago. 
