XXVI. On the method of interpreting Egyptian Hieroglyphics by Young and Champollion, with a vindication of its correctness from the strictures of Sir George Cornewall Lewis

Extract

The subject on which I have the honour to address you is the correctness of the method of interpreting Hieroglyphics originated by Dr. Young and developed by Champollion. This method, after having long been generally accepted by scholars, is now seriously attacked, and the learning of the assailant demands as serious a defence. The question is one of much graver importance than at first appears. The immediate results of the interpretation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions seem meagre and uninteresting, but it will be found that these results have been largely used by almost all inquirers into the primaeval period of the world's history. To abandon them is nothing less than to go back at least thirty years in this province of historical inquiry. If we have erred let us frankly acknowledge the fault and retrace our steps, but let this not be done without a careful consideration of the evidence before us.