king; one name becomes another name; one number becomes another number; one place becomes another place.” 1 The writer then adduces examples, a specimen of which is given in a preceding quotation. And do not the quotations we have given above from Bunsen's work fully sustain this caustic criticism? In a plain historical narrative names of men are transformed into names of places and countries and events; the number denoting the year of a man's life, denotes the time of the tribe passing the river Tigris; the date of the call of Abraham to leave his country is that of the birth of his son, and the date of the son's birth, becomes that of the father's death. We would not undervalue the labors of Egyptologists. They have opened up a fascinating branch of study, and brought to light many interesting and valuable things—yea, even valuable truth. Their works give a general idea of the state of ancient Egypt, which in the main, we regard as truthful. They have translated portions of a chapter of the world's history, and we may admit with a good degree of correctness, which a few years since was altogether in an unknown language. But from the very nature of their materials, they can never produce any connected history or chronology that can set aside what has usually been received as authentic history or chronology from other sources. This is evident from the fragmentary state of the materials, the absence in them of authentic connection, and the presence of numerous irreconcilable contradictions. This being the condition, all that we can expect from Egyptology is a general corroboration of facts and truths elsewhere stated, occasionally clearing up a doubt or adding to an imperfect statement; and when new facts and truths are professedly brought to light which are independent, we will receive them for what they are worth. Egyptology has already furnished much that is corroborative of the general truth of the Bible, but we repeat it, it cannot, in its present state, be entitled to modify materially, much less controvert or set aside, any important fact or statement in the sacred volume. 1 Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 368. ARTICLE VII. FRESH NOTES ON EGYPTOLOGY. BY JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D.D., NEW YORK. DURING the current year there have been published in the department of Egyptology, two dictionaries, two grammars, two folio volumes of hieroglyphic texts, an early text of the "Book of the Dead,” and a complete translation of that national Ritual. The Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache points triumphantly to this array of linguistic apparatus as the best answer to the attack sometimes made, even now, upon Egyptian studies as immethodical and unprofitable. Egyptian philology has been further enriched of late through the discovery of a bi-lingual inscription at Tanis, a site which had already proved exceedingly rich in remains of antiquity. Early in 1866, as Dr. Lepsius was exploring the Isthmus of Suez and the Delta in the vicinity of the ship canal, an employee of the Suez Company informed him that he had seen a Greek inscription among the ruins of San. Lepsius hastened to verify this statement, and succeeded in uncovering a stone seven feet high by two and a half in breadth, the upper part of which was covered with hieroglyphics numbering thirty-seven lines, and the lower with a corresponding Greek inscription in seventy-six lines. Having thoroughly cleansed the stone, his attendant, Mr. Weidenbach, took from it an impression upon prepared paper, from which the inscription has been lithographed in the size of the original. The inscription is dated on the 1 A Dictionary of Hieroglyphics, by Samuel Birch, LL.D., in Vol. v. of Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in Universal History"; and Dr. H. Brugsch's "Hieroglyphisch-Demotisches Wörterbuch." Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. 2 Hieroglyphic Grammar, by Samuel Birch, in Bunsen's Egypt; and Vicomte de Rouge's Chrestomathie Égyptienne, with a grammatical analysis. Paris: A. Franck. 8 Altägyptische Tempelinschriften, (I.) Der Horustempel von Edfu, (II.) Der Hathortempel von Dendera. Von Johannes Dümichen. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs. Arranged by Dr. R. Lepsius after the sarcophagi of the old Egyptian kingdom, in the Berlin Museum. Berlin: W. Hertz. By Dr. Birch, in Bunsen, Vol. v. • May 1867, p. 44. "The writer had the pleasure of seeing this first impression in the study of Dr. Lepsius. The lithographed copy, with a translation and notes, has been published under the title, Das bilingue Dekret von Kanopus in der Originalgrösse init Uebersetzung und Erklärung beider Texte, herausgeben, von R. Lepsius. 17th Tybi of the ninth year of Ptolemy III. Euergetes I., which Dr. Lepsius reduces to the 7th of March of the year 238 B.C. It recites that king Ptolemaus and his wife Berenice had made large gifts to the temple for the support of the priests and the sacred animals, and had shown great zeal in upholding religion; that in his campaign in Asia, the king had recovered the images of the gods which the Persians had stolen from the Egyptian temples, had brought these back to Egypt and restored them to the places where they formerly stood; that, while waging victorious wars in divers lands, he had maintained peace at home; that, to provide against a famine apprehended by reason of an insufficient rising of the Nile, he had imported corn from Syria, Phenicia, and Cyprus, etc. In grateful acknowledgement of these and other good deeds of the king and queen, the priests, in assembly, ordained that the religious honors which this royal pair and their ancestors had hitherto enjoyed, should be increased; that a new order of "priests of the Beneficent Divinities" should be constituted in all the temples of the land for the purpose of maintaining their worship; and that a new feast should be established in honor of the king. The length of this inscription and the almost perfect condition of both texts, give to it a greater philological value than now attaches to the Rosetta stone. By means of a somewhat extensive Egypto-Greek vocabulary, the Tablet of Canopus confirms the general system of hieroglyphical interpretation suggested by Champollion. As a complement to this, the indefatigable Mons. Chabas has published a revised translation of the Rosetta stone, with a glossary of Egypto-Greek.1 M. le Vicomte Emmanuel de Rougé has published a valuable essay upon the earliest monuments of Egyptian history, entitled Recherches sur les Monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux six premières Dynasties de Manéthon. This volume is the first instalment of the results of the mission organized four years ago by the French government, for historical explorations in Egypt. In this mission Count Rougé, the first of French Egyptologers, was accompanied by his son, who had prepared himself by three years of special study and practice in copying hieroglyphic inscriptions, M. Wescher, who has had much experience in deciphering Greek inscriptions, M. de Banville, a skilful photographer, and M. Mariette, who was detailed for this service by the king of Egypt. The material results of the mission were six volumes of inscriptions hitherto unpublished, copied by hand, and two hundred and twenty photographic plates, reproducing the historical walls of temples, the most important inscriptions, and the finest monuments of Egyptian art. Berlin: W. Hertz. A rival edition, disputing the claim to the discovery, has been published in Vienna: Die Zweisprachige Inschrift von Tanis zum ersten Male herausgegeben und uebersetzt, von P. Leo Reinisch und E. Robert Roesler. 1 L'Inscription hiéroglyphique de Rosette Analysée et comparée a la version Greque. Par F. Chabas. Paris: Maisonneuve. 1867. 2 Paris: Imprimerie Impériale. Quarto. pp. 165, with plates. 1866. This collection was made with a view to elucidate the chronology of Egyptian art and history. The epoch of the fourth dynasty—the epoch of the pyramids, the earliest which has yet been identified by contemporancous monuments, is now richly illustrated by the spoils gathered by M. Mariette from the ancient field of Memphis, and deposited in the royal Museum at Cairo. Its statuary is marked by exactness of proportions, the careful study of the principal muscles, the fine sculpture of the figure, and individuality of expression, — altogether a new revelation concerning art at that early period. The eleventh dynasty, whose burial place at Thebes was brought to light some time ago, is further illustrated through the recent discovery of the tomb of king Antef. Numerous monuments of the twelfth dynasty have been found near Abydos, where M. Mariette discovered the enclosure of a very ancient temple of Osiris, and a series of official steles, recording the visit of successive sovereigns who had come to render homage at this sanctuary. Dr. Lepsius and others have placed the invasion of the Hyksos directly after the twelfth dynasty, but the colossal statues of Sevek-hotep III., the fourth king of the thirteenth dynasty, identified at the frontier town of Tanis, and erected to attest the authority of that monarch over the “Lower Country," are almost conclusive evidence that the shepherds had not yet crossed the borders. Comte Rougé promises a special memoir from M. Mariette upon the relations of Egypt with these oppressors, whose date he assigns to the eighteenth century B.C. The New Empire, which dates from the expulsion of the Hyksos, is abundant in monumental records. Comte Rougé has succeeded in restoring entire the historical poem celebrating the campaigns of Sesostris, already partially known from the papyrus Sallier. These examples will serve to show what light may be expected from the working up of the materials collected by Comte Rougé and his collaborators. Meantime, Prof. C. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, from his most careful Astronomical data, computes the building of the Great Pyramid at 2170 B.C. In the classification of the first six dynasties, our author was greatly aided by the lists of kings lately discovered at Memphis1 and Abydos 2 – the first containing fifty-two names, of which ten are more or less illegible; the second giving an almost unbroken series of seventy-six royal cartouches, from Menes to Sethos I. (about 1400 B.C.), who appears upon the monument in the act of offering homage to his predecessors. The following Table will exhibit the results of these lists in comparison with the list of Manetho, according to Africanus, for the first three dynasties. The tablet of Memphis or Sakkarah, discovered by M. Mariette in 1860. 2 The tablet of Sethos I., discovered by M. Dümichen in 1864. The agreement of the two tablets with one another and with the Turin papyrus is so striking, that their united authority must be accepted as official for at least one mode of registering the royal succession. It remains to harmonize this, if possible, with Manetho, or to determine which of the two registers is entitled to the greater weight. Bunsen has attempted to rectify Manetho by Eratosthenes, whom he regards as of higher authority; but this he does by arbitrary corrections and transpositions. His assertion that "the Eratosthenian table solves all problems as to the first six dynasties and their representatives on the tablets of Karnak and Abydos,” had reference to the old tables of Abydos; for the Sethos tablet had not then been discovered. This tablet is the only known monument that gives a complete list of the first dynasty, and its row of seventy-six consecutive kings between Menes and Sethos I. creates a formidable problem in chronology. The solution of chronological problems given by Bunsen in his fifth volume, calls for a more critical analysis than would fall within the |