Page:Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians Volume 1.djvu/15

Rh of opinion on a difficult question has a tendency to elicit truth, and finally to establish accurate and impartial evidence, we may cease to regret that it prevails at the commencement of these inquiries. And, indeed, it is highly satisfactory to find that the researches of Dr. Young, Champollion, Rosellini, Major Felix, and my own, have, in most instances, led to similar conclusions.

Professor Rosellini is a man of erudition and a gentleman, and one whose enthusiastic endeavours, stimulated by great perseverance, are tempered by judgment, and that modesty which is the characteristic of real merit. To be engaged in the same pursuits with him must, therefore, be highly satisfactory, from the persuasion that, however we may differ on some questions, our opposite opinions will be maintained with those feelings which ought to actuate men who labour in the same field, and for the same object.

Egyptian history, and the manners of one of the most ancient nations, cannot but be interesting to every one; and so intimately connected are they with the scriptural accounts of the Israelites, and the events of succeeding ages relative to Judæa, that the name of Egypt need only be mentioned to recall the early impressions we have received from the study of the Bible.

Another striking result derived from the examination of Egyptian history, is the conviction, that, at the most remote period into which we have