Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/302

Rh May 1847, and included the third chapter of the Memoir, treating of the cuneiform alphabet and the important Supplementary Note on the pronunciation, pages 55 to 18G.^

Part III. was at the same time in the hands of the printer, and appeared later in the year (1847). It contains Chapters IV. and V. of the Memoir. The former gives a revised transliteration and translation of the text with an Analysis; and the other a complete revised edition of all the inscriptions previously pub- lished by Lassen. Mr. Norris, the Assistant Secretary of the Asiatic Society, saw the whole of this complicated work through the press, and he undertook to alter the transliteration given in Chapter IV. in accordance with the principles laid down in the Supplementary Note. For his services in this matter, he received a vote of thanks from the Society. ' He unites,' said the pro- poser, *more varied learning and more rare and extensive research and intelhgence than I have ever seen coml)ined in the same individual '; " and he sub- sequently attained an independent position in the first rank of cuneitbrm scliolars.

Part IV. was not published till 1849. It uicluded the sixth chapter of the Memoir and treated of the Vocabulary, but the dissertation was never completed. It breaks oJF in the middle of a sentence, when the writer had not proceeded further than the words com- menchig with vowels and with consonants of the first three classes. It purports to give a few brief etymo- logical explanations, but in reality it is admirable as a display of learnhig in many fields of knowledge, and it is especially interesting for the explanation it adbrds of the reasons that led to the determination of words of doul)tful meaning. While he was engaged in this work,

' lieport, June LS47, /. li. A. S. x. p. vii. - lb. p. xvi.

T