The method of interpretation adopted has been strictly inductive, the value of the characters being deduced from the equation of sounds, or homophones of similar groups. The meaning of the groups or words has been determined by examining all known instances in which they occur in passages capable of being interpreted, that of the ideographs by observing the form of the symbols; many of them have been made out front the pictures which they explain, or the phonetic groups which accompany them. A. careful comparison has been instituted with corresponding Coptic and Hebrew roots when they exist. In short, a careful principle of induction has been applied to the study of the hieroglyphs.
The discovery of another trilingual inscription, that of the tablet at San or Tunis, recording a synodical act of the priests in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II., n.c. 238, lies confirmed the results obtained by Egyptologists, the meaning of almost all the words having been previously determined; while the power of reading all documents and inscriptions afforded by their researches teas resulted in the resuscitation of a knowledge of the history, science, and literature of the ancient Egyptians. The study has long passed into the category of a recognized branch of oriental learning, and the researches have assumed a more critical form. This has been owing to the number of students and the abundance of material extant and published. The doubts with which the interpretations were at first received have succumbed to the conviction that nothing but a current system of interpretation could have obtained such logical results. What• ever doubt, in fact, may exist as to the minor details and more delicate shades of language, all the grammatical forms and three-fourths of the words of the old Egyptian language have been established.
The hieroglyphs stood in the same relation to the other two forms of writing the character, called hieratic and demotic, as type does to handwriting,. Their use was chiefly for official inscriptions on public or private monuments, religious formulae, and prayers, and rituals or hermetic books (see PArynus). The most remarkable hieroglyphic inscriptions are: that of Una. recording the conquest of the lands of the negroes at the time of the Gth dynasty; in honor of Klinumbetp at Benihassan, recording the invest ment of his family; the campaigns of Ahmes against the Hykshos at El-Kab: the annals of Thothines III. at Karnak, the campaign of II. against the Khita, and the treaty with them; the account of the tank for gold-washings in the reign of Seti I. and Mimeses II. at Kouban and Redesich; the invasion of Egypt in the reign of Menept:11 by the allied forces of the Libyans, Naxy3s, Acbaioi or Greeks, Sicilians. Etruscans. Lycians. and other people of the basin of the Mediterranean; the star-risings on the tomb of Rameses V.; the journey of the ark of Khons to Bakhtan. in the reign of Rameses X.; the account of Cambyses and Darius on the statue of the Vatican; the already-cited synodical act of the priests in honor of Ptolemy Euergctes II., and that
of the priests assembled at Memphis. on the Rosetta. stone in the of Ptolemy V.. the sepulchral tablets of the family of PaShereriptah, and the Ion; series of sepulchral tablets of the bull Apis found in the Serapeion, recording the birth, installation, and death of the bulls from the 18th dynasty to the Persians.
In connection with the hieroglyphics are two modes of writing them, first the hieratic writing, consisting of a kind of abridged hieroglyphs. The number of these written characters is fewer than that of the hieroglyphs, the generic determinatives being more employed, and the vocalic complements of the consonants being constantly written, in order to distinguish similar forms. This writing was more extensively used than the hieroglyphic. being employed for state papers, legal documents, memoranda, accounts, religious books, rituals, and all the purposes of private and public life. Books were generally written in hieratic. It commences as early as the 4th or 5th dynasty, and terminates only about the 3d or 4th c. of our era. At the earliest period, it is occasion ally written perpendicularly, but it was afterwards only written horizontally, and has generally portions in red ink, corresponding to our initial illuminated letters or rubrics. For the literary contents of these rolls, see PAryites. Sonic, indeed, have supposed that the hieratic alphabet gave rise to the Phenician, and have endeavored to trace the Phenician alphabet from hieratic sources. But although much ingenuity has been expended in this inquiry, the precise source of Phenician writing remains involved in obscurity, the principal fact being that a syllabary existed long prior to the Phenician alphabet, which did not reach the perfection of the Greeks, owing to the suppression of vowels. The second kind of hieroglyphic handwriting was the demotic, or so-called enchorial. It was a still further reduction of the hieratic, simpler forms being used, while the complements are not used, and it approaches still nearer the alphabetic system. It contains an alphabet of 42 letters and a syllahary of 48 characters, and is less rich in the number of determinatives and ideographs than the hieratic. It is, like all cursive hands, more difficult to decipher than the hieratic. It was introduced into the Egyptian graphic system about the commencement of the 26th dynasty, or the 6th c. B.c., and continued in use till the 3d c. A.D. This was the last native form of writing in Egypt, the early Christians having introduced the Greek alphabet, with a few characters borrowed from the demotic. This script is rarely used for public mono nients, although it appears on the Rosetta stone; but it was universally employed for contracts, public documents, and occasionally for religious formulae, owing to the decreasing knowledge of hieroglyphics. At the time of Clement, it was the first learned by beginners. With it the Greek language began to appear in public use.