HELIOPOLIS. 149 
we be unable to explain any thing of their ^^-^^• 
original import, there is one mode of considering ' »- .^ 
them, in which a careful examination of the 
signs thus represented may be attended with 
amusement, if not with instruction. This con- Vl^etypes 
ot the Hie- 
sists, first, in ascertaining what the archetypes -rosiii/p'^ics. 
were of the several figures used to denote letters: 
these are sometimes clearly exhibited, but often 
confusedly sketched, as if with a view to abbre- 
viation; and secondly, in using these documents, 
not only to illustrate the manners of the most 
antient nations, but also to prove the existence 
of many antient customs from their existing 
relics. In this point of view, the discoveries 
made by Denon^ among the hieroglyphics of 
Upper Egypt are valuable. The light thrown 
upon the history of antient Architecture, and of 
the Arts and Sciences, by the figured represen- 
tation of things as they existed in the earliest 
periods, will gratify a laudable curiosity, and may 
also answer the more important purpose of con- 
veying historical information. The hieroglyphics 
(5) See Denon's account of the hieroglyphics in the Sepulchres of 
the antient Kings of Theces. Trarcls in Upper and Lower Egypt, 
vol. \\. p. 173. London, 1803. — Also of the hieroglyphics of '^ Tentijru,'* 
where he discovered the first models of the style of decoration impro- 
perly termed Arabesque, such as were e\e'juted in painting at the Haths 
of TdtiSy and copied by Raphaei. See vol. I. p.lW, 
