only do we find the sites of their cities covered with forests of obelisks and inscribed statues, but even written records of bargain and sale, evidences of the transfer of property, have reached us, dated as long before the commencement of our era, as we are posterior to it. A key to the language and the alphabet was alone wanting, to render these memorials of use to history, and the discoveries, whose progress we have detailed on a former occasion, have at last placed this within our reach. Thus, then, the foundation of the monumental history of Egypt, is as firm as that on which the consent of critics has placed the history of Rome and Greece. Each inscription is in itself an incontestable witness, bearing record of the times at which it was delineated, and their combinations and comparison may be effected in the same way that we compare and combine those which relate to other nations. To sculptured stones, are to be added the evidence of the papyri; many of these exist in the collections of Europe; some of them are mere funeral rituals, but even these contain the name of the prince under whose government they were drawn up, and the year of his reign. The greater part are civil contracts, and in their preamble we read the date, described upon the same principle. Even public documents have been discovered; and in the magnificent collection made by Drovetti, and purchased by the King of Sardinia, was found a mass of mutilated papyri, records of the ages of Moeris and Sesostris. Champollion reached these only a little too late to preserve them from a destruction to which the greater part were condemned, from a want of proper care. Some few fragments were however preserved, and have proved of inestimable value.

It is by a comparison of these monuments and documents with the text of those few ancient authors that have treated of Egypt, that we are to gain a knowledge of the true history of that country. The present then is the era when criticism can be advantageously applied to this purpose. Discrepant in themselves, vague and meagre in their details, these histories have not acquired our confidence, and we can therefore enter into their examination free from bias of any kind. By such investigations, ancient Egypt is restored to the province of authentic history, and this restoration is effected by the aid of a mass of documentary evidence, hitherto unknown or unintelligible.

Circumstances have rendered this evidence comparatively easy of access. The results of the French expedition to Egypt have been embodied in a splendid national work, in which are to be found the most correct copies of the larger and less moveable monuments; while the researches of Salt and Drovetti have accumulated numerous remains of every possible description, with which the museums of Europe are in a manner loaded. Four magnificent public collections already exist; namely, at Turin,

in the Vatican; in the Louvre; and in the British Museum. The French collection has been recently opened under the superintendence of Champollion the younger, in splendid apartments, fitted up for the express purpose; and the present King of France seeks to immortalize his name by connecting it with the foundation of this Museum. We shall translate the account of this magnificent collection from a cotemporary journal.

"The rich collection of Egyptian antiquities purchased at the expense of the king from Messrs. Drovetti, Salt, and Durand, and placed in the magnificent halls of the Museum of CHARLES X., is opened to the view of the public."

"The first sensation we experience upon the view of these ancient remains, is the astonishment, that they have been able to exist through so long a series of centuries, almost entire, and that we are thus enabled to judge of the state of the arts at so remote a period."

"They attest that the people, whose legacy they are, had attained, even long before the time which we style the Heroic Age of Greece, an advanced state of civilization, and we are compelled to confess, that the only merit we can at the present day boast, is that of having filled up by our industry, what Egyptian labour had first sketched out, and of having added a few new inventions to all those which we derive at second hand from that country."

"With how high an idea of the Egyptians do these remains inspire us, which, after having resisted for forty centuries the ravages of time and the barbarian, still attest, that all that is necessary for life, nay all that can render it agreeable, was already invented and employed by them; that they knew how to appropriate to their wants all the productions of their soil, and confine their desires to them, without seeking to extend them beyond the limits of their own territory. Truly there was no small degree of wisdom in that people, which was able, before the barbarian had extended his devastating arm over its borders, to preserve for a long succession of years the stability of its government, maintain its ancient institutions in their primitive vigour, and devote itself to the arts of peace, at an epoch, when in other parts of the world, now the most civilized, hordes still savage, were engaged in the task of mutual destruction, or contested the means of subsistence with ferocious beasts."

"To collect and interrogate the annals of this primitive people, in order to obtain facts fitted to illustrate the history of those obscure eras, that seem to bound upon the very origin of the world, is a task worthy of the speculations of philosophy, and the researches of the learned. In the state to which the study of Egyptian antiquity has been advanced by private means, it became the duty of a government, the encourager of the arts, to unite, and expose to the inspection of an enlightened public, a nu

merous series of inscribed monuments, and to confide them to the care of the scholar who had decyphered them. Science and literature unite in applauding this happy thought, whose performance gives rise to the most ardent hopes."

"Nine great halls, embellished with vast pannels of marble, and decorated with paintings, communicate by means of vast arched openings, resting on Ionic pilasters, that permit the visitor to seize at a single glance, the whole extent of the Museum of Charles X. The four first halls contain the antiquities of Egypt; the others, a rich collection of Greek vases, of ancient statues in bronze, paintings in enamel of the 18th century, and other articles precious from their material, their workmanship, or their rarity. Allegorical paintings of the most brilliant effect, embellish all the ceilings; the voussoirs, whose colours are well chosen, are covered with emblems and subjects connected with those of the ceilings; painted imitations of bas-reliefs adorn the pannels."

"The collection of Egyptian antiquities united in these four halls, consists of objects of small size alone, with the exception of the mummies and their cases; but it is rich from the number and the variety of the articles it contains. The civil and religious history of Egypt must draw from it invaluable illustrations."

"It is hardly possible to appreciate the difficulty that must have been experienced, in classing, methodically, monuments so numerous, the habitual objects of so many errors, and which had for so many ages been considered as beyond the reach of explanation. No other person but Champollion the younger was worthy of being intrusted with such a task; and his numerous discoveries in Egyptian history, and in the graphical system of that country, have furnished him with the means of perform-. ing it. In truth, nearly all the monuments of Egyptian art are accompanied by hieroglyphic inscriptions, which indicate their object and destination; a facility rarely met with in Greek or Roman antiquities."

*

"The collection has been divided into three departments. In the first hall (called that of the Gods) are to be seen the images of the Egyptian deities, their emblems, the sacred animals, and the scarabaei that represent the divinities or their symbols. The second hall (called Civil) contains articles belonging to the civil class, and to the several castes of Egypt; among these are small statues and figures of kings, of priests,. and of private individuals; instruments of worship, jewels, domestic utensils, and the products of the arts and manufactures. In the two remaining halls (called Funereal) are placed, human mummies, and their

coffins, funereal images, coffers and small statues in wood, funereal manuscripts, &c."

"To the admiration which the view of these precious monuments excites, is added the feeling of gratitude to the distinguished scholar who has rendered them intelligible; he who by his laborious researches, has opened to posterity annals forgotten for twenty centuries, has deserved well of the literary world, and the name of Champollion will hereafter be inseparable from that of the nation of which he has become the interpreter.

The present is a most auspicious period for forming such collections. Egypt is now accessible to civilized nations without the slightest danger; and the agents of different European powers have had free permission not only to search for smaller and more portable antiquities, but have even been allowed to cut off and remove essential parts of different buildings. This permission savours in some degree of barbarism, for it shows that the value and beauty of these magnificent ruins is not appreciated by the person whose property they now are. It was to such want of proper feeling that we have to ascribe the mutilation of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, and a similar dilapidation has been committed by a Frenchman upon the most perfect remain of Egyptian architecture, the temple of Denderah.

It is indeed to be confessed, that the almost complete ruin of the Parthenon by the Greeks themselves, in the late defence of the Acropolis, if it be no palliation for the tasteless plundering of the Briton, may at least diminish our regret at his acts; and the unsettled and precarious state of Egypt, may sooner or later close that country to the civilized traveller, and by converting its temples into fortresses, expose them to the risks of war.

Still we cannot bring ourselves to approve of the mutilation of these venerable buildings; but it is otherwise with the removal of fragments already separated, or of separate monuments. We only regret that our own country has taken no pains to secure a portion of the rich and interesting spoil. It would be impossible at the present day to obtain any very valuable relics of Greek or Roman art. The governments of Italy know too well the value of the statues and other articles, which although becoming more and more rare are still occasionally found, to permit their being removed from the country. Greece has been again and again ransacked by Romans, Turks, Venetians, and modern travellers, but Egypt is yet an almost virgin soil for the cultivation of the antiquarian. A part of its remaining riches might be secured at small expense, were the government to appoint a commercial agent in Egypt, and allow him a moderate annual sum to prosecute the search for antiquities. That a person possessing a public character, and supported by the influence of the government, VOL. IV.No. 7.

5

could do much, we do not doubt, having before us several precious articles, the fruit of private and unaided curiosity.

We are however forgetting the main object of this paper, which is to inquire into the history of Egypt, and exhibit it such as it now appears, by the aid of the researches recently made in hieroglyphic writing, compared with the records and traditions that have descended to us. What the principal authorities for the history of this interesting country are, has been stated in another place:* we shall here proceed to show in a connected form, the facts we have deduced from them, and from the papers of Champollion.

Menes, or Menas, was, by the concurrent testimony of Manetho, Herodotus, and Diodorus, the first king of Egypt. We have ventured to conjecture that he might have been Misraim, the son of Ham, or even Ham himself. Egypt is still, by the Arabs who now inhabit it, called the land of Mesr, and hence there can be but little or no doubt, had we not the positive evidence of scripture, that it became his apanage. We have however been led since, to search more narrowly into this subject, and inquire, whether among the descendants of Ham, actually named in the book of Genesis, there might not be one identical in appellation with this king. We believe that we have been so fortunate as to discover the name, varied so slightly as to leave no doubt of this identity. Among the sons of Misraim we find Anamim, or after removing the plural termination Anam. Those who are conversant in etymology, must see at once, that the Greeks, in euphonising this barbaric name, could not have approached more closely to it, than is done by the word Menes, or Menas. † This decendant of Ham bore the same relation to their common progenitor, as Nimrod the son of Cush, the first who assumed regal power, among that portion of the human race whose history becomes the more immediate object of the sacred volume.

The successor of Menes was Thoth, or Athothes, to whom is ascribed the invention of writing, and many other useful arts. We have in the fragments of Manetho. a full list of two dynasties seated at This, at the head of the first of which we find these two names. These two dynasties include fifteen kings, and may therefore have continued about 400 years; the duration assigned to their collective reigns, in Eusebius' version of Manetho, is 554 years, but this is probably too long, as it is a sum that far exceeds what would be the result of a similar series of generations of the usual length. From the time of Menes to that of Maris, Herodotus leaves us entirely in the dark. He states merely that the priests enumerated between them 330 kings. Diodo

American Quarterly Review, No. IV., p. 520.

Thus Neith, the Egyptian Minerva, bore in Greece the name of Athena.