Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

Introduction. xxxi
preferable to any other ? This is the actual system which was jje pleads
adopted by the author of our Dictionnaire Hieroglyphique, and for Birch's
MT T>- -11 suffrage for
it is necessary to hope that Mr. Birch will not deny to it his u s brother's
suffrage. 1 ... In the general order of the divisions system,
[of the Dictionnaire] the characters are placed according to the
heaven before
order of merit of the object which they represent ;
the stars which appear therein ; man before all other animated
creatures ;
the products of the divine creation before the products
of human invention ; plants before objects of art and fantastic
emblems. Finally, the whole before its parts, and these even in
champolliona
certain order of relative
. .
pre-eminence, which is
..
regulated
.....
by Figeac
describes his
the customs or opinions of the world. . . . Each hiero- natural and
glyphic character is followed by the groups
of which it is the rational "
primitive character, the key-character, and in the arrangement
of these groups, the order of priority adopted for the general
classification of the characters has been followed. . . . More-
over, this order for the second character is followed equally for
the third, the fourth, etc., just as is done for the second, third
and fourth letter of the words of our dictionaries arranged in the
order of the alphabet." 2
However " natural " and " rational " this system may have
been from Champollion's point of view, there is no doubt that
the beginner and student with only a limited knowledge of The "natural
"
hieroglyphs would find it very difficult to get from his 1^11 * 1
Dictionary f
much help in reading even an ordinary historical inscription, or arrangement
a formula from the Book of the Dead. This will be apparent to ijjjjjf 1*1
the reader if he will examine the extract from it which is printed contemporary
due allowance for the im- Egyptologists-
on pp. xxviii, xxix, even after making
perfect knowledge of the interpretation of hieroglyphs which Egyptologists
possessed in 1832. At all events Champollion's system was
not adopted by the Egyptologists of the day, though all admitted
his Dictionnaire to be a fine monument of research and learning.
In the Preface to his " Sketch of a Hieroglyphical Dictionary,"
Birch stated that he did not intend to proceed with the publication
of his work until the second part of Champollion's Grammaire
figyptienne had appeared. This decision is easily understood
and it is only natural that he should wait to see what further
details of Champollion's incomplete works might be contained Birch finds
in manuscripts which Champollion- Figeac was publishing as the "
natural^
r
fast as possible. The last fascicule of the Grammaire figyptienne ^ste
appeared in 1841, and Champollion's Dictionnaire Egyptian in unpractical.
1 Preface of Champollion-Figeac, pp. xxviii and xxix.
*
Ibid., p. xxxii.
^ 1C