326 THOMAS YOUNG. 



notice of our readers a few of those passages in that work in 

 which Dr. Young's claims are so powerfully vindicated. The 

 conclusions turn on such a variety of points of details that it 

 would be wholly impracticable to attempt any analysis of 

 them in this place. But the result tends to assign a consid- 

 erably larger share of credit in the discovery to Dr. Young 

 than Arago seems disposed to allow him. Dr. Peacock's able 

 and elaborate work is doubtless in the hands of all those who 

 take any interest in a question so important to the advance of 

 philological and ethnological science as well as to general lit- 

 erature. Yet a slight sketch of the chief points referred to 

 may not be useless. 



We may first mention that Dr. Young's article " Egypt " 

 in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, published 

 in 1819, contains the most comprehensive survey of his labours 

 and conclusions on the subject of hieroglyphic literature up 

 to that date. It does not profess to go into those minutiae of 

 critical detail, for which reference must be made to his nu- 

 merous other writings on the subject. But as a general and 

 popular view it will always be consulted with advantage. 

 Nevertheless, the reader must always bear in mind that, in 

 the statements thus given, much had to be revised, or even 

 reversed, from the improved disclosures of his later researches. 



Dr. Peacock has alluded but briefly to the views of Arago, 

 and towards the conclusion of the chapter, sums up the repre- 

 sentation of the case as given in the eloge, remarking only 

 that the whole of his previous statements constitute the refu- 

 tation of it. 



The following extract will show the main claims of Young, 

 insisted on by his biographer. 



" It was Dr. Young who first determined, and by no easy 

 process, that the * rings ' * on the Rosetta stone contained the 

 name of Ptolemy. It was Dr. Young who determined that 

 the semicircle and oval, found at the end of the second ring, 



* Certain portions of the hieroglyphical characters are found sur- 

 rounded by a ring or enclosure called by the French " Cartouches." 



