6 
EGYPT.—AN INTRODUCTION. 
tlie reader for the deep research of more elaborate authors, than any other work extant 
in which it has been attempted to popularise information on this apparently abstruse 
subject. 
It is fortunate that the clue to deciphering the hieroglyphics has been discovered 
before the temples and the tombs, upon which they exist, are destroyed; for though 
there is a principle of security and endurance in the architecture of the Ancient Egyptians 
not found in the ruins of the temples of any other early people, it is probable that 
amaranth, anchor, archer, arrow, antelope, axe. I choose the asp, 
‘ sovereignty.’ 
symbolic of 
M—We have a mace, mast, mastiff, moon, mouse, mummy, musket, maize. I select the mace, 
indicative of ‘military dominion.’ 
f 
E—An ear, egg, eagle, elk, eye. The eagle, is undoubtedly the most appropriate, being the 
‘ national arms of the Union,’ and means ‘ courage.’ 
R—A rabbit, ram, raccoon, ring, rock, rope. I take the ram, by synecdoche, placing a part for 
the whole, emblematic of ‘ frontal power,’— intellect, —and sacred to Amun. 
I—An insect, Indian, infant, ivy. An infant will typify ‘the juvenile age’ and still 
undeveloped strength of this great country. 
C—A cake, cauldron, cat, clam, carman, constellation, curlew, cone, crescent. The crescent would 
indicate the rising power of the United States ; the constellation of stars would emblematise 
the States, and is borne aloft in the American banner; but I choose the cake— 
consecrated bread —typical of a ‘ civilised region.’ 
A—An anchor, or any of the above words beginning with A, would answer: the anchor would 
symbolise ‘maritime greatness,’ associated with ‘safety’ and ‘stability;’ but not being ; 
Egyptian emblem, I take the ‘sacred Tad,’ Q the symbol of ‘eternal life,’ which i 
alphabet is an A. li 
-fB 1 
“ To designate that by this combination of symbols we mean a country, I add the sign 
in Coptic ‘Rah,’ meaning a country, and determinative of geographical appellatives. 
“We thus obtain phonetically — 
© i- 
while, symbolically, the characters chosen imply ‘ sovereignty, military dominion, courage, intelligence, 
juvenility, civilisation, and eternal durability.’ 
“This example, however, gives but a faint idea of the beauty, and often exquisite propriety, of 
Egyptian composition, or of the complexity of the hieroglyphic art of writing. It will be allowed 
that even this Anglicised illustration of the word America does not render its perspicuity very apparent; 
and, with a full acquaintance of the language, it would be a puzzle to a decipherer. How much 
more so, when the vowels may be omitted, as they generally are, and only the consonants written, 
as ‘MRC, country.’” 
