Mr.Trelawny resumed his lecture as we all sat with our heads close to this wonderful jewel: "As you see, there are two words, one on the top, the other underneath.
The symbols on the top represent a single word, composed of one syllable prolonged, with its determinatives.

You know, all of you, I suppose, that the Egyptian language was phonetic, and that the hieroglyphic symbol represented the sound.

The first symbol here, the hoe, means 'mer', and the two pointed ellipses the prolongation of the final r: mer-r-r.

The sitting figure with the hand to its face is what we call the 'determinative' of 'thought'; and the roll of papyrus that of 'abstraction'.

Thus we get the word 'mer', love, in its abstract, general, and fullest sense.