The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1894-04-25
WEDNESDAY. APRIL 25. 1894.
THE TREASURE KEY.
A Discovery That Opened the Riches of
Eastern Literature.

Discovery That Opened the Riches of
Eastern Literature.
1t is not fairy tale that l am going
to tell you, though l do take You far
away to the orient, to the land of the
lotus flower, the land Of the pyramids,
of the obelisks and the Nile, but story
true in word and fact.
1t is the story of key, before which
vast treasure houses, ingpenetrable for
ages, opened their doors. And when the
portals We're thrown wide the searchers
gazed upon vistas containing riches Of
which their widest imaginings had
never dreamed.
1t is not key of gold, though its
value is more than its weight i'll that
precious metal, nor is it shaped like a
key at all. And the wealth it unlocked
is not only for its finders, but for all
that desire to partalIe of it, for all pos
terity, for you and for me. Ispealt of tie
Rosetta stone. which is now i'll the Brit
ish museum.
Many ages ago Ptolemy Epiphenes,
king of Egypt, paid the arrears of taxes
and other debts of the priesthood OF
Egypt, and in thanks and to show their
respect for his consideration the priest
hood, at synod held in Memphis, passed
decree commemorating it. The decree
was cut into stone, as that was the mode
of preserving a record of historical
events. This happened about 1915 years
before the Christian era.
You must know that the Egyptians
had a different mode of writing from
ours. They used hieroglyphics or picture
writing, and this, after great research,
has been discovered to be the written in
depreciation Of sounds.
That a record of Epiphenes' deed
might not be lost the Egyptians had the
decree written in three different Ian
guages, the hieroglyphic, the demotic
and the Greek This was done as a pre-
caution, because, as the country had
many dialects, a language once i'll use
was likely to die out i'll time. So by
making this trilingual copy of the event,
each translation of the other, it was
likely to be preserved.
Years passed, and the dust Of ages
buried from view the stone that was des-
tined to play so important part i'll
throwing light upon the shadowy con-
ceptions of modern thinkers regarding
the past life and manners and customs
Of the Egyptians
This is the origin of the Rosetta stone,
but no one in the modern world knew of
its existence until the time of Napoleon.
He carried his conquering arms all over
Europe, and not content with his VIC
tories there he invaded Egypt, where he
fought the brilliant Egyptian campaign.
While stationed near Rosetta, in lower
Egypt, some of the soldiers with the
French engineer, NJ. Boussard, found,
while excavating in the historical soil,
block of stone of black basalt, about
81 feet i'll length and little more than
affect III width. On it they saw strange
and unintelligible Writing or drawings.
1t was the Rosetta stone, so called from
the name of the place where it was
found, but they did not dream how pre-
cious their discovery would prove.
And it was not until about 10 year
had passed that even one word WA
translated. Dr. Young i'll 1915 made
out the word Ptolemy, and he it wa
who discovered that the writing wa
phonetic and not Geographic, us ha'
been supposed. But the key had not ye
done its work, for, like Aladdin and hi,
lamp, the talisman had not yet beer
conquered.
DR.. Young, continuing his research,
deciphered the word Berenice among
the pictorial writings of the frescoes Al
Karnak. But it is to Champolion that
most of the credit is due, for he contin
ned the research unremittingly, an(
finally his labors We're crowned with vic
tory The translation of the Rosetta
stone was completed-that is to say, sc
far as the stone itself is complete, foi
one part of it is broken Off
1t was not an easy task to conquer
but one we'll worth the attempt, ant
honor will ever rebound to the men thai
undertook and succeeded III opening NJ
the broad field of the literature of tn,
east, the field that glows with gloriou
deeds and vast achievements, and tina
for ages baffled the wisest. -Philadel
piha Times.