Richard Lepsius : a Biography. By Georg Ebers. Translated by
Zoe Dana Underhill. (W. S. Gottesberger, New York.)—The bio- graphy of one of the greatest of modern Egyptologists has been appropriately assigned to a writer who has done much to popu- larise the knowledge of Egyptian life. Lepsius set to work on Egyptological studies in 1834. In 1842 he headed the Prussian expedition to Egypt. Among his associates were two architects, Erbkam and Wild by name, two hierogrammatists, and Bonomi the
sculptor,—himself no mean proficient in this branch of knowledge. He returned, after extending his lourneying,s to Sinai and Palestine in 1846. Dr. Ebers energetically defends him against the charge of ruthlessly spoiling Egyptian antiquities. Some, doubtless, he- did remove, injuring others in the process ; but what else was to be done when the work of destruction was being energetically carried on, not to furnish museums, but to build modern houses ? The next ten years were occupied in the production of his great work on monuments. Of this the biographer gives us a careful and instructive criticism, and he also describes the magnificent museum for the furnishing of which Lepsius did so much. In 1866 he went to Egypt for the second time. At San, the Greek Tanis, he discovered the "Tablet of the Sun," with its hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek in- scription. The tablet furnished a convincing proof that the decipherers had been on the right tack. A third. visit, which had, however, little to do with science, was paid in 1869, on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal. In 1874 he became chief of the Berlin Library, in which he worked great improve- meats. Ten years afterwards he died, working Tip to within three days of his death, the last proofs of his "Linear Measures of the Ancients" having been corrected by him on his death-bed. He was then seventy-four years of age. The picture which Dr. Ebers
gives of "Richard Lepsius as a man" is interesting and attractive. We get little glimpses, now and then, of German life. We read, for instance, that at Leipzig, his first University, his room,.. morning coffee, and dinner cost him seven groschen.
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