Otia Aegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archaeology and hiroglyphical discoveries / By George R. Gliddon.

  • Gliddon, George R. (George Robins), 1809-1857.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Otia Aegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archaeology and hiroglyphical discoveries / By George R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/170 (page 9)
    LECTURES ON EGYPTIAN ARCHEOLOGY. INTRODUCTION, BY THE EDITOR OF THE “ ETHNOLOGICAL JOURNAL.” The subject of Egyptian Antiquities lias excited for some time past, and is still exciting, intense interest among many of tlie highest minds of the day; but in this country, the excitement is pretty much confined within the narrow circle of Egyptian scholars themselves. The public has not partaken of it, nor has the knowledge acquired been in any degree popularized. On the contrary, the most antiquated notions still prevail amongst us ; so that even in quarters otherwise well-informed, Egyptian discoveries continue to be met by objections which might have been tolerably legitimate some twenty years ago, but which are absolutely ridiculous at the present time. Strange to say, the very reverse is the case on the other side of the Atlantic. In the United States, there is no scientific subject which has, of late, excited so much inter- est, or on which the public is so well informed, as that of Egyptian Antiqui- ties. And this result has been entirely produced by the energy and enthu- siasm of a single mind. When Mr. Gliddon commenced his labours as a Lecturer, in the Winter of 1842, Egypt was not only a land of Darkness to the American public, but even the literary men of the country, with very rare exceptions, were entirely ignorant of the existing state of Hieroglyphical learning. This ignorance arose not from any want of curiosity or liber- ality, but simply from the fact that American scholars are too much in the habit of deriving their knowledge almost exclusively through English channels, and they could not, therefore, be expected to have advanced beyond their teachers. Mr. Gliddon’s labours, however, during six winters, have completely reversed this state of things: the public has been excited to a very unusual degree, and the learned have been induced to go directly to the fountain heads of Egyptian subjects, not only in the works of English Egyp- tologists, but in those also of France, Germany, and Italy. To understand the nature of this revolution, a few preliminary explanations are requisite. The people of the United States are very favourably circumstanced, both in character and social position, for transitions of this kind. Their curiosity, literary as well as general, is proverbial. They arc usually educa- ted, have less prominent distinctions among them, cither of class, or race, than most other civilized nations, and they possess besides a most ex- tensive apparatus of cheap newspapers, and the greatest facilities for intcr- B