HIEROGLYPHICS. 315 



nations enumerate with triumph the discoveries of their 

 sons, it should hinder me from seeking, even in the pres- 

 ent circle, among those colleagues whose modesty I would 

 not hurt, the proof that France is not degenerate ; that 

 she also adds every year her glorious contingent to the 

 vast deposit of human knowledge.* 



I approach, then, the question of Egyptian writing, 

 and I do so free from all prejudice, with the firm wish 

 of being just ; with the lively desire to conciliate the 

 rival pretensions of two men of science whose premature 

 death has been to all Europe a legitimate subject of re- 

 gret. Lastly, I shall not in this discussion on hieroglyphics 

 transgress the bounds imposed on me ; happy if those 

 who listen to me, and whose indulgence I ask, may find 

 that I have known how to escape the influence of a sub- 

 ject whose obscurity is proverbial. 



Men have imagined two systems of writing entirely 

 distinct. One is that employed by the Chinese, which is 

 the system of hieroglyphics ; the other, at present in use 

 among all other nations, bears the name of the alphabet- 

 ical or phonetic system. 



The Chinese have no letters properly so called : the 

 characters which they use in writing are strictly hiero- 



* In bringing out a part of this chapter on Egyptian Hieroglyphics 

 in the Annuaire for 1836, Arago has added: "The first exact inter- 

 pretation which has been given of Egyptian hieroglyphics will cer- 

 tainly take its place among the most beautiful "discoveries of the age. 

 Besides, after the animated debates to which it has given birth, every 

 one would desire to know whether France can conscientiously pretend 

 to this new title to glory. Thus the importance of the question, and 

 the national self-love properly understood, unite in encouraging me to 

 publish the result of a minute examination to which I have devoted 

 myself. Can I, then, be blind to the danger which there always is in 

 attempting difficult subjects in matters which we have not made the 

 special subject of our studies? " 



