However (says Mariette), we must not imagine that the deciphering of hieroglyphs by means of the Rosetta Stone was accomplished at the first trial, and without groping in the dark. On the contrary, the savants tried for twenty years without much success. At last Champollion appeared. Prior to him people thought each of the letters that compose hieroglyphic writing was a _symbol_; that is, that in every single one of these letters a complete _idea_ was expressed. The merit of Champollion consisted in proving that Egyptian writing contains signs which express _sounds_; in other words, that it is _alphabetic_. He noticed that wherever in the Greek text the proper name _Ptolemy_ is met with, there may be found, at a corresponding place of the Egyptian text, a certain number of signs enclosed within an elliptic ring. From this he concluded (1) that the names of kings were indicated, in the hieroglyphic system, in a sort of escutcheon, which he styled a _cartouche_; (2) that the signs contained in the cartouche must be letter for letter the name of Ptolemy (Ptolemaios). Even supposing the vowels omitted, Champollion was already in possession of five letters--P.T.L.M.S. Again, Champollion knew, according to a second Greek inscription, engraved on an obelisk of Philae, that on this obelisk a hieroglyphic cartouche is visible which must be that of Cleopatra. If his first reading was correct, the P, the L, and the T of Ptolemy must be found again in the second proper name; while, at the same time, this second proper name would furnish K and R. Although very imperfect as yet, the alphabet thus revealed to Champollion, when applied to other cartouches, put him in possession of nearly all the other consonants. Thenceforth he had no need to hesitate concerning the _pronunciation_ of signs; for, from the day this proof was furnished, he could certify that he possessed the Egyptian alphabet. But now remained the language; for pronouncing words is nothing, if we know not what they mean. Here Champollion’s genius could soar. He perceived that his alphabet, drawn from proper names and applied to words of the language, simply furnished _Coptic_. Now Coptic, in its turn, is a language which, without being so well explored as Greek, had for a long time been not less accessible. (It was a spoken language until the sixteenth century, and three spoken dialects remained, sufficiently resembling the old Egyptian to enable all the grammatical forms and structure to be examined.) Therefore the veil was completely removed. The Egyptian language was only Coptic written in hieroglyphs; or, to speak more correctly, Coptic is only the language of the ancient Pharaohs, written in Greek letters. The rest may be inferred. From sign to sign Champollion really proceeded from the known to the unknown, and soon the illustrious father of Egyptology could lay the foundations of this beautiful science, which has for its object the interpretation of the hieroglyphs.