OBITUARY. ' 263 



family of the late Rey. Thomas Dix Hincks, LL D. Professor of Hebrew and 

 Oriental languages in the Belfast Academical Institution, confers an additional 

 interest here on the death of the most distinguished among his sons. Dr. Edward 

 Hinciis obtained a fellowship at Trinity College, Dublin, with distinction rarely, 

 if ever equalled, before he was twenty one. In the first honors thus obtained, he 

 chiefly displayed his mastery of mathematical science. His later triumphs 

 turned mainly on his no less thorough command both of the classical and 

 oriental languages. His early training amid all the special advantages of the 

 paternal roof, no. doubt tended to give this peculiar bias to his tastes, and to 

 direct him to the field of his later successful lalpours. 



Dr. Edward Hincks was born at Cork, in Aug. 1791. Soon after obtaining 

 his fellowship he took orders in the Church of England, and was presented by 

 his College to the Rectory of Ardtrea, which he subsequently exchanged for 

 that of Killyleagh in the Diocese of Down. Thei-e the last forty one years of his 

 life were spent ; and those labours carried out which have won for him a Euro- 

 pean reputation as one of the most profound and original philologists of the 19th 

 century. The period in which he lived was one presenting peculiar facilities 

 and inducements to his favourite investigations. The discovery of the famous 

 Rosetta Stone took place in his early youth ; but he had already obtained dis- 

 tinction as a philologist before the labours of Young- and Champollion furnished 

 the long sought key to the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. To this interest- 

 ing department of philological research he now applied his extensive knowledge : 

 and frequently gave evidence of a rare talent for deciphering its novel characters 

 and unknown language. 



But the labours of Professor Grotefend of Gottingen had, so early as 1802, 

 accomplished for the cuneiform alphabet of the Persepolitan inscriptions, what 

 Dr. Thomas Young subsequently did for the ancient characters of Egypt ; and 

 the alphabet thus partially deciphered, was augmented by the ingenious researches 

 of Rask of Denmark. To those discoveries, the later explorations of Botta and 

 Layard gave a new interest; and the name of Dr. Edward Hincks will ever be 

 associated with those of Rawlinson, Oppert, and others of the most profound 

 European philologists who have devoted themselves to the deciphering of the 

 cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis, Nineveh, and other ancient seats of Asiatic 

 civilisation. He laboured with unwearied perseverance in this novel field of 

 research; and won a reputation, especially among German scholars for great 

 acuteness and sagacity, combined with caution and patient conscientiousness. 

 A writer in the Alhencemn speaks from personal knowledge, of the high terms ia 

 which he was referred to by such continental scholars as Roediger and Ewald ; 

 and adds r " His talent for deciphering texts in unknown characters and lan- 

 guages was wonderful. It was applied to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics, 

 and to the inscriptions in the cuneiform character. In this field especially he 

 laboured for years with great perseverance and success, having been the first 

 to ascertain the numeral system, and the power and form of its signs, by means 

 of the inscriptions at Van. He was one of the chief restorers of Assyrian learn- 

 ing, throwing great light on the linguistic character and grammatical structure 

 of the languages represented on the Assyrian monuments." His interpretatiocs 



