Njála and Heimskringla. In it we have the suffix by, under the forms of the verbs ek bý, ek bió, or at búa, and ek byggi or byggia, manere, habitare, incolere, struere, edificare; also the nouns bú (Ang.-Sax. bý, Dan. bo, by), domus, habitaculum; and búi, incola, colonus, vicinus; closely assimilated expressions all of them, in which the roots are found of our English words bide, abide, be, by (denoting proximity), build, borough, bury (Edmondsbury), barrow, byre, bower, abode, &c. Now, these explanations undoubtedly confirm the interpretation assigned by Mr. E. S. Taylor to his terminating syllable; and it is probable enough that the villages to which he refers received their titles from the Danes, who, we know, on the subjugation of its former inhabitants, possessed themselves of the country in which they are situated. This, however, is a begging the question; for, resting simply on the evidence of the suffix, it is equally probable that these places preserved the names assigned to them by their former northern colonists. But our bý or búa, Ang.-Sax. bugan and beón, and the Germ. (ich) bin and bauen, have all been referred by learned philologists to the Greek φύω, or to βιόω, or to παύω, παύομαι; and the word has affinities scattered throughout numerous languages (there are the Camb.-Brit. bydio, habitare, and byw, vivere, for instance), so that we are surrounded by difficulties, if we attempt to establish from its use any such point as that involved in your correspondent's Query.
Cowgill.
THE ROSICRUCIANS.
(Vol. vii., p. 619.)
When Pope, in dedicating his Rape of the Lock to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, was desirous of putting within the reach of that lady the information which Mr. E. S. Taylor has sought through your pages, he wrote:
"The Rosicrucians are a people that I must bring you acquainted with. The best account of them I know is in a French book called Le Compte de Gabalis, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake."—Dedicatory Letter to the Rape of the Lock.
This celebrated work was written by the Abbé Montfaucon de Villars, and published in 1670. "C'est une partie (says Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV.) de l'ancienne mythologie des Perses. L'auteur fut tué en 1675 d'un coup de pistolet. On dit que les sylphes l'avaient assassiné pour avoir révélé leurs mystères." In 1680, an English translation appeared (penes me), entitled:
"The Count of Gabalis; or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists, exposed in Five Pleasant Discourses on the Secret Sciences. Done into English by P. A. (Peter Ayres), Gent., with short Animadversions. London printed for B. M., printer to the Royal Society of the Sages at the Signe of the Rosy Crusian."
The original French work went through several editions: my own copy bears the imprint of Amsterdam, 1715, and has appended to it La Suite du Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences secrètes, touchant la nouvelle Philosophie," &c.