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Article ON THE STUDY OF MASONIC ANTIQUITIES. ← Page 6 of 15 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Study Of Masonic Antiquities.
are enabled to trace the first faint glimmering of that light svhich subsequently attained its meridian splendour in ancient Greece , and to discern the important part svhich the "land of purity and justice " assumed in tlie early diffusion of science and civilization , and the channels through svhich its svisdom svas conveyed to neighbouring nations , before the lights svhich shone from Theban colleges svere extinguished , and the sun of Pharaonic glory sunk to rise no more .
With these remarks I return to the subject of the hieroglyphics . The language of the ancient Egyptians svas ancient Coptic , and it is somess'hat remarkable that this language ceased to be orally practised among the modern Copts about a century since . Arabic graduall y superseded it , and the last speaker of Coptic died about seventy years ago . The ancient language is still , hosvever , read in the churches of the Coptic community , svith Arabic translations . Had it been entirel y lost , the art of deciphering the hieroglyphics , and the important results svhich
have been detailed as flosvmg from that circumstance , svould have been lost to tlie svorld for ever . The process adopted in translating the ancient Egyptian legends is to transpose the hieroglyphics according to their corresponding values in Coptic letters , tbe roots are thus , in general , traceable in Coptic lexicons ; but it requires vast erudition , long practice , and intense study , to be enabled to translate correctly . In the days of the Pharaohs the hieroglyphical texts could be read by the initiated as correctly as a page in
Chinese characters by a scribe of the " celestial empire , " or a treatise on algebra by an arithmetical master in our osvn country ; both , like the Egyptian legends , offering a continual intermixture of phonetic and ideographical signs . I svill nosv proceed to give an illustration as to the mode of rendering the hieroglyphics . The follosving , from Ghampollion ' s grammar , shows the method introduced by that accomplished scholar for translating the legends into Coptic , and from thence into French . The reading is from right to left .
^ dp £ rto 5 LiR jT & i-ejpe & Korp 8 Deux obelisques . J ' ai fait ( eriger ) . La gauche . a . " On the left hand ( or svestern bank of the Nile ) I have caused tsvo obelisks to be erected . " Speech of AMUNOPH the Third , on a stela dedicatory of his palace , the Amunophium , Thebes , a . c . 1690 . Names of Egyptian localities svere indicated by this sign pQ > " consecrated bread , " betokening civilization . *
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Study Of Masonic Antiquities.
are enabled to trace the first faint glimmering of that light svhich subsequently attained its meridian splendour in ancient Greece , and to discern the important part svhich the "land of purity and justice " assumed in tlie early diffusion of science and civilization , and the channels through svhich its svisdom svas conveyed to neighbouring nations , before the lights svhich shone from Theban colleges svere extinguished , and the sun of Pharaonic glory sunk to rise no more .
With these remarks I return to the subject of the hieroglyphics . The language of the ancient Egyptians svas ancient Coptic , and it is somess'hat remarkable that this language ceased to be orally practised among the modern Copts about a century since . Arabic graduall y superseded it , and the last speaker of Coptic died about seventy years ago . The ancient language is still , hosvever , read in the churches of the Coptic community , svith Arabic translations . Had it been entirel y lost , the art of deciphering the hieroglyphics , and the important results svhich
have been detailed as flosvmg from that circumstance , svould have been lost to tlie svorld for ever . The process adopted in translating the ancient Egyptian legends is to transpose the hieroglyphics according to their corresponding values in Coptic letters , tbe roots are thus , in general , traceable in Coptic lexicons ; but it requires vast erudition , long practice , and intense study , to be enabled to translate correctly . In the days of the Pharaohs the hieroglyphical texts could be read by the initiated as correctly as a page in
Chinese characters by a scribe of the " celestial empire , " or a treatise on algebra by an arithmetical master in our osvn country ; both , like the Egyptian legends , offering a continual intermixture of phonetic and ideographical signs . I svill nosv proceed to give an illustration as to the mode of rendering the hieroglyphics . The follosving , from Ghampollion ' s grammar , shows the method introduced by that accomplished scholar for translating the legends into Coptic , and from thence into French . The reading is from right to left .
^ dp £ rto 5 LiR jT & i-ejpe & Korp 8 Deux obelisques . J ' ai fait ( eriger ) . La gauche . a . " On the left hand ( or svestern bank of the Nile ) I have caused tsvo obelisks to be erected . " Speech of AMUNOPH the Third , on a stela dedicatory of his palace , the Amunophium , Thebes , a . c . 1690 . Names of Egyptian localities svere indicated by this sign pQ > " consecrated bread , " betokening civilization . *