132 ANCIENT EGYPT. 



than any other kind of writing, and certainly much less so 

 than that of the Chinese. 



It is interesting to follow its degeneration into more flowing 

 forms, providing the key to the evolution of our present system 

 of writing ; still it continued to hold its position as a monu- 

 mental language until the third century of our era, soon after 

 which all knowledge of it practically died out until brought to 

 light again at the beginning of the last century. It is thought 

 by some to be the mother of Phoenician, and from the 

 language of that enterprising people many of the alphabets 

 of Europe and Asia are said to be derived. The progress 

 made in the translation of the three stages of ancient 

 Egyptian handwritings, viz., hieroglyphic, hieratic, and 

 demotic, since the times of Thomas Young, Jean FranQois 

 Champollion, Silvestre de Sacy, and even the Swede Akerblad, 

 has, of course, been very great, but the rendering of all of 

 them still leaves much to be desired; indeed our knowledge is 

 still insufficient for accurate translation, and the reading of 

 any other than simple texts must be speculative to a great 

 extent so long as the idioms remain unmastered; the great 

 difficulty lying in the gradual change in the language, con- 

 stantly growing as it was, and extending over such a vast 

 period of time, and also to the loss of the myths essential to a 

 clear understanding of the meaning of the texts — take the 

 evolution of any modern language and this must be seen. 

 The alphabet consists of 24 letters, but there are several 

 different forms of some of them. The hieroglyphics include 

 syllabic and symbolic quantities or signs, and grammatical 

 inflections are present. The earliest inscriptions express ideas 

 in the abstract, quite apart from a mere representation of 

 tangible objects. Poems and even ballads appear in many 

 inscriptions. Upwards of 3,000 signs have been identified. 

 The illustration of hieroglyphic writing before you is one of 

 the series of copies of inscriptions in the possession of the 

 Society (No, 4). 



Hieratic is a more cursive rendering of hieroglyphic forms, 

 which are subjected to a system of abbreviation. Here is an 



