ues, were inscribed with
hieroglyphic inscriptions, all generally executed with great care and
finish. The Egyptian edifices were also covered with religious or
historical tableaux, sculptured and painted on all the walls; it has
been estimated that in one single temple there existed no less than
30,000 square feet of sculpture, and at the sides of these tableaux
were innumerable inscriptions, equally composed of ingeniously grouped
figurative signs, in explanation of the subjects, and combining with
them far more happily than if they had been the finest alphabetical
characters in the world.

Their study would require more than a lifetime, and we have only space
to give a few general hints.

We have a much more accurate knowledge of Greek inscriptions than we
have of Egyptian palaeography. The Greek alphabet, and all its
variations, as well as the language, customs, and history of that
illustrious people, are better known to us. Greek inscriptions lead us
back to those glorious periods of the Greek people when their heroes
and writers made themselves immortal by their illustrious deeds and
writings. What emotions must arise in the breast of the archaeologist
who finds in a marble worn by time the funereal monument placed by
Athens, twenty-three centuries ago, over the grave of its warriors who
died before Potidaea.

"Their souls high heaven received; their bodies gained,
In Potidaea's plains, this hallowed tomb.
Their foes unnumbered fell: a few remained
Saved by their ramparts from the general doom.
The victor city mourns her heroes slain,
Foremost in fight, they for her glory died."

The most important monumental inscription which presents Greek
records, illustrating and establishing the chronology of Greek
history, is the Parian chronicle, now preserved among the Arundelian
marbles at Oxford. It was so called from the supposition of its having
been made in the Island of Paros, B.C. 263. In its perfect state it
was a square tablet, of coarse marble, five inches thick; and when
Selden first inspected it it measured three feet seven inches by two
feet seven inches. On this stone were engraved some of the principal
events in the history of ancient Greece, forming a compendium of
chronology during a series of 1,318 years, which commenced with the
reign of Cecrops, the first King of Athens, B.C. 1582, and ended with
the archonship of Diognetus. It was deciphered and published by the
lea