THE scientific world of England, which has taken the lead in so many other branches of palæographie study, has been content to leave the investigation of the Cuneiform Inscriptions almost entirely to Continental scholars; and, which is still more unusual in the history of Eastern archæology, the origin and progress of this investigation, and the results that have been obtained from it, appear to be but imperfectly known amongst us. Individuals doubtless of all countries, whether Englishmen or foreigners, engaged in the study of Oriental antiquities, have followed with a curious eye the successive discoveries that have been made; but general attention, or, at any rate, an attention commensurate with the value of the discoveries, has not been hitherto in England directed to the subject; and if I were to take up the inquiry, therefore, at the point where Professor Lassen has left it, interpretations which would satisfy the criticism of France or Germany might be received in London with extreme suspicion. This circumstance has suggested the propriety of adopting a more extended and elaborate form of introduction to a Memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions, than the present advanced stage of the inquiry can be considered rigidly to demand. In a study, indeed, of which the value depends entirely on the authenticity, and of which the authenticity can alone be verified by the constant and consentient results of a cautious and severe analysis, it is obviously better to err on the side of prolixity than of omission. A defective or imperfect link will destroy the integrity of the whole chain of evidence, while accumulative proofs, although they may encumber and perhaps disfigure the argument, will at the same time but contribute to its strength.
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