322 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 Philoe, 

 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 

 e'pe'e (a sword), elephant, epagneul (spaniel), &c. Abb6 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 same sound or the 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. 



