February 1, 1894.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



33 



of the native kiugs" who reigned in Egypt anterior to 

 it. We are compelled to commence with Mena. Yet 

 at the period of this monarch, b.c. 4400 j'ears, we 

 tiud the Egyptians in possession of a perfectly developed 

 system of writing, made up of alphabetical and phonetic 

 characters, with a number of their ancient ideographs 

 retained as determina- 

 tives. The Assyrian, 

 Median, and Babylonian 

 cuneiform writings also 

 display slow develop- 

 ment from old forms of 

 picture-writing, obtained 

 by very tardy degrees, ex- 

 tending over many cen- 

 turies, and hke the Egyp- 

 tians, retaining as deter- 

 minatives many of their 

 ancient ideographs. 

 China, after the lapse of 

 three thousand years, has 

 not yet emerged from its 

 system of ideographs. 



In the absence of records 

 of Egyptian civilization 

 pointing to a picture- 

 writing age, we cannot 

 find the base on which 

 Herr Sethe erects his 

 theory. Egyptian history, 

 unlike the history of 

 Greece, furnishes no 

 archaic period of art and 

 literature. Go back as far 

 as we may, we fail to 

 reach the cradle of its 

 civilization. Its art sup- 

 plies no Brunchida statues, 

 such as Greece furnishes, 

 telling of the rude artistic 

 efforts of the race prior to 

 Myron and Phidias. A 

 retrospect of five thousand 

 years does not help us. 

 The statues of Sepa and 

 Nesa* betray an art with 

 aims and instincts well 

 developed ; and they date 

 from B.C. 3900 ! The close 

 of the third dynasty pro- 

 duced the masterpieces 

 of ancient art. Those 

 two famous statues of 

 Ra-hotep and his wife 

 Nefert (the beauty), exhibited 



Translation 



of the 

 lift liand ciilnmn. 



Nut 



She grants 



that thou 



shalt be 



a god ; 



never more 



shalt 



thou have 



enemies, 



King of the 



North and South, 



Menkaura, 



living for ever. 



Translation 



,f the 



riyJit Jiantl ro/innn. 



We cannot reach, therefore, by history, tradition, or 

 monumental remains, to the distant archaic age of 

 Egyptian pure picture-writing. Of the four thousand 

 years during which we are able to study the Egj-ptian 

 records, we find that literature, like art, was constantly 

 fluctuating ; its eras of decadence being followed by 



intervals of revival. At 

 some periods the scribes 

 attempted to discard the 

 use of ideographs, yet 

 there appears to have 

 been a constant, almost 

 persistent, tendency to 

 revert to the principles 

 of the old system. We 

 must remember, also, 

 the latitude allowed the 

 scribes, who followed no 

 normal rule in writing, 

 but often substituted one 

 phonetic hieroglyph for 

 another in cases where 

 they had the same soimd. 

 Moreover, they omitted 

 or inserted ideographs at 

 times, in an apparently 

 arbitrary manner, and 

 for the sake of harmony 

 of appearance substituted 

 vertical for horizontal 



Osiris, 



King of the North 

 and South, 



Menl<aura, 



living for ever : 



born of Heaven, 



conceived by i'o™s, as ---- s fi "they 



Nut; 



thou comest 



of the race 



of the 



god 



Seb. 



Lid of Coll 

 under glass 



in the 

 museum at Boulak, are, with good reason, attributed by 



M. Marriette to the reign of f P J ^^ _p 1 Seneferu, 



B.C. 870G ! The extreme beauty of the sculptures surpasses 

 all subsequent work, and their interest is increased by the 

 certainty of their great age. As in art, so is it in literature. 

 " We can hardly hesitate to assume," says Bunsen, I 

 "whatever preconceived ideas it may disturb — that this 

 genuine Egyptian writing, combining phonetic with 

 figurative signs, is, in its essential elements, «f le(('<t as old 

 as the time of Menes." 



* "Hiflorv of Art in Aiu'ient Egv]>t.'"- 

 + ■' Ek,v|iI's PImi'c in Universal Historv. 



-PciTot and Chijiioz. 

 vol. T.. pagi' S. 



or 1 1 , as it suited the 



I I I I . 

 stone to be inscribed. I 



Having regard to these 

 facts, the attempt to erect 

 an important hypothesis 

 on the bare retention or 

 omission of ideographs in 

 a solitary inscription, or 

 even from a host of in- 

 scriptions of any parti- 

 cular period of Egyptian 

 history, seems to be rash 

 to the last degree. There 

 is abundant evidence to 

 show that in the reten- 

 tion or omission of ideo- 

 graphs, throughout an 

 extensive country and 

 during a number of cen- 

 turies, the writing con- 

 stantly underwent changes 

 and modifications. Whenever the object itself was the 

 ideograph, they almost invariably at one period omitted 



the ideograph altogether, as in S (J =^^- '•">'> o^'ei' an 

 ape, and in [] Q «h, over a cow. Moreover, hieroglyphical 



writing, especially in the case of temple inscriptions, 

 unquestionably contained an rsoteric as well as an exoteric 

 meaning. By the use of ideographs the meaning packed 

 as closely as the Latin. Hence it was retained for those 

 inscriptions to a very late date. Plutarch mentions the 

 inscription over the temple of Sais, comprising an old 

 man, a youth, a hawk, a fish, and a hippopotamus, 



all, whether 



Thy mother 



of Menkaura, B.C. .363.'!. 



-t^n 



<e^ 



meanmg 



Williinson's -'Egxp'- 



