_ek by_, _ek bio_, or _at bua_, and _ek byggi_ or _byggia_,
manere, habitare, incolere, struere, edificare; also the nouns _bu_
(Ang.-Sax. _by_, Dan. _bo_, _by_), domus, habitaculum; and _bui_, 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 _by_ or _bua_, Ang.-Sax. _bugan_ and _beon_, and the Germ. (ich)
_bin_ and _bauen_, have all been referred by learned philologists to the
Greek [Greek: phuo], or to [Greek: bioo], or to [Greek: pauo, pauomai]; 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 Abbe Montfaucon de Villars, and
published in 1670. "C'est une partie (says Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis
XIV._) de l'ancienne mythologie des Perses. L'auteur fut tue en 1675 d'un
coup de pistolet. On dit que les sylphes l'avaient assassine pour avoir
revele leurs my