260 



the letter you directed to me to Weimar, and at the 

 same time warmly recommended the proposed " pri- 

 vate secretary." A German letter of Prince Metter- 

 nich, expressing his sentiments in graceful language, 

 will interest you. I make you a present of it for 

 your collection. The occasion was a plaster mould 

 and cast (at which the Prince himself has worked) 

 of an old Egyptian Stele, of granite, which he had 

 received from Mehemet Ali, twenty-five years ago. 

 The aged Prince presented me with this cast (from 

 three to four feet high) because he wanted me to 

 decipher the long inscription it contained in De- 

 motic characters. This has been performed by the 

 talented young Egyptologist Dr. Brugsch, author of 

 a Demotic grammar, which has been generally ad- 

 mired abroad. Dr. Brugsch, who had the first edi- 

 tion of his grammar (written in Latin) printed while 

 he was still a pupil in the first class of Dr. August's 

 Gymnasium* (the second edition in French), has 

 found a deal of very curious astronomy in the in- 

 scription ; and to give pleasure to the old Prince, 

 Brugsch has published the whole as " Stele-Metter- 

 nich," in the Oriental Magazine (" Zeitschrift fur 

 das Morgenland"), and in the " Athenee." Brugsch 

 is the son of a poor cavalry sergeant, has spent two 

 years in Egypt at the King's expense, and is well 

 acquainted with Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Koptic, and 

 Persian. Excuse my horrid scrawl, which is hardly 

 readable, and my savagely-incorrect style. 



Surely the letter of the Maccaroni King to Louis 

 Philippe, in the " Spener'sche Zeitung," has not 



* Dr. August's Gymnasium the " K6lner Gymnasium" at Berlin. TR. 



