A knowledge of astronomy leads to the interpretation of hieroglyphical characters, since astronomical signs are often found on the ancient Egyptian monuments, which were probably employed by the priests to record dates. On the ceiling of the portico of a temple among the ruins of Tentyris, there is a long row of figures of men and animals, following each other in the some direction among these are the twelve signs of the zodiac, placed according to the motion of the sun: it is probable that the first figure in the procession represents the beginning of the year. Now the first is the Lion as if coming out of the temple; and as it is well known that the agricultural year of the Egyptians commenced at the solstice of summer, the epoch of the inundations of the Nile, if the preceding hypothesis be true, the solstice at the time the temple was built must have happened in the constellation of the lion; but as the solstice now happens 21° 6' north of the constellation of the Twins, it is easy to compute that the zodiac of Tentyris must have been made 4000 years ago. The author had occasion to witness an instance of this most interesting application of astronomy, in ascertaining the dale of a papyrus sent from Egypt by Mr. Salt, in the hieroglyphical researches of the late Dr. Thomas Young, whose profound and varied acquirements do honour not only to his country, but to the age in which he lived. The manuscript was found in a mummy case; it proved to be a horoscope of the age of Ptolemy, and its antiquity was determined from the configuration of the heavens at the time of its construction.