[263] The remarkable clue to the reading of the hieroglyphic language
of ancient Egypt perfected in our own times is a striking instance
of this; as well as the investigations now proceeding in Babylonian
inscriptions, which promise to enable us to comprehend a language
that was once considered as hopelessly lost.
[264] The curious reader may view the marks, and the manner in which
the Greek characters were made out, in the preface to Hearne's
"Curious Discourses." The amethyst proved more difficult than the
frieze, from the circumstance, that in engraving on the stone the
letters must be reversed.