s from the first, and had practically
nothing to thank them for except material to work on, and too often that
had been intentionally withheld from him. In eleven years he broke
ground in all directions; if the ordinary span of life had been allowed
him, with twenty or thirty more years of labour he might have brought
order into the chaos of different ages and styles of language and
writing; but, as it was, the task of co-ordination remained to be done
by others. For one year, before his illness incapacitated him,
Champollion held a professorship in Paris; but of his pupils and
fellow-workers, F. P. Salvolini, insincere and self-seeking, died young,
and Ippolito Rosellini (1800-1843) showed little original power. From
1832 to 1837 there was a pause in the march of Egyptology, and it seemed
as if the young science might be overwhelmed by the storm of doubts and
detraction that was poured upon it by the enemies of Champollion. Then,
however, Lepsius in Germany and Samuel Birch in England took up the
thread where the master had dropped it, and E. de Rouge, H. Brugsch,
Francois Joseph Chabas and a number of lesser lights quickly followed.
Brugsch (q.v.) was the author of a hieroglyphic and demotic dictionary
which still holds the field, and from time to time carried forward the
study of demotic by a giant's stride. De Rouge (d. 1872) in France was a
brilliant translator of hieroglyphic texts and the author of an
important grammatical work. Chabas (1817-1882) especially addressed
himself to the reading of the hieratic texts of the New Kingdom. By such
labours after forty years the results attained by Champollion in
decipherment were entirely superseded. Yet, while the values of the
signs were for the most part well ascertained, and the meanings of most
works fixed with some degree of accuracy, few grammatical rules had as
yet been established, the varieties of the language at different periods
had not been defined, and the origins of the hieroglyphs and of their
values had not been investigated beyond the most obvious points. At this
time a rare translator of Egyptian texts in all branches was arising in
G. Maspero (q.v.), while E. Revillout addressed himself with success to
the task of interpreting the legal documents of demotic which had been
almost entirely neglected for thirty years. But the honour of
inaugurating an epoch marked by greater precision belongs to Germany.
The study of Coptic had begun in Europe early in the