ents
of which hitherto nothing had been suspected. Moreover, the number of
ascertained words in the vocabulary is continually diminishing, while
the host of the unknown increases; for we no longer arrive at the
meaning by the way of audacious etymologies and still more audacious
guesses.

"We have yet to travel for many years on the arduous path of empirical
research before we can attain to an adequate dictionary. There is indeed
an exceptional reward which beckons us on to the same goal, namely,
that we shall then be able to assign to Egyptian its place among the
languages of Western Asia and of Africa. At present we do well to
let this great question alone. As in the linguistic department of
Egyptology, so it is in every other section of the subject. The Egyptian
religion seemed intelligently and systematically rounded off when each
god was held to be the incarnation of some power of nature. Now we
comprehend that we had better reserve our verdict on this matter until
we know the facts and the history of the religion; and how far we are
from knowing them is proved to us by every text. The texts are full of
allusions to the deeds and fortunes of the gods, but only a very small
number of these allusions are intelligible to us.

"The time has gone by in which it was thought possible to furnish the
chronology of Egyptian history, and in which that history was supposed
to be known, because the succession of the most powerful kings had been
ascertained. To us the history of Egypt has become something altogether
different. It comprises the history of her civilisation, her art, and
her administration; and we rejoice in the prospect that one day it may
be possible in that land to trace the development of a nation throughout
five thousand years by means of its own monuments and records. But we
also know that the realisation of this dream must be the work of many
generations.

"The so-called 'demotic' texts, which lead us out of ancient Egypt into
the Graeco-Roman period, were deciphered with the acumen of genius more
than half a century ago by Heinrich Brugsch, but to-day these also
appear to us in a new light as being full of unexpected difficulties and
in apparent disagreement with both the older and the later forms of
the language. In this important department we must not shrink from a
revision of past work.

"I will not further illustrate this theme; but the case is the same in
every branch of Egyptology. In each, the