105 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 196. 



Njala and Heimskringla. In it we have the suffix 

 %, undei' the forms of the verbs ek hy^ ek bio, or 

 cH bua, and ek byggi or byggia, manere, habitare, 

 incolere, struere, edificare ; also the nouns bu 

 (Ang.-Sax. by, Dan. bo, by'), domus, habitaculum ; 

 and bid, incola, colonus, vicinus ; closely assimi- 

 lated expressions all of them, in which the roots 

 are found of our English words bide, abide, be, by 

 (denoting proximity), build, borough, bury (Ed- 

 mondsbury), barroiv, byre, bower, abode, &c. Now, 

 these explanations undoubtedly confirm the inter- 

 pretation assigned by Me. 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 sub- 

 jugation of its former inhabitants, possessed them- 

 selves 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, the Ang.-Sax. bugan 

 and beun, and the Germ, (ich) bin and bauen, have 

 all been referred by learned philologists to the 

 Greek (piu, or to ^i6<», or to Trava>, navofiat ; and the 

 word has affinities scattered throughout numerous 

 languages (there are the Camb.-Brit. bydio, habi- 

 tare, and byio, vivere, for instance), so that we are 

 surrounded by difficulties, if we attempt to esta- 

 blish from its use any such point as that involved 

 in your correspondent's Query. Cowciuo. 



THE B08ICEUCIANS. 



(Vol. vii., p. 619.) 



When Pope, In dedicating his Rape of the Loch 

 to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, was desirous of put- 

 ting within the reach of that lady the information 

 which Mr. E. S. Tatlor 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 Comjyte 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 Bape 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 I'ancienne mythologie des Perses. 

 L'auteur fut tue en 1675 d'un coup de pistolet. 

 On_ dit que les sylphes I'avaient assassine pour 

 avoir revele leurs mysteres." In 1680, an En- 

 glish translation appeared {penes me), entitled : 



" The Count of Gabalis; or the Extravagant Mys- 

 teries of the Cabalists, exposed in Five Pleasant Dis- 

 courses on the Secret Sciences. Done into English by 

 P. A. (Peter Ayres), Gent., with short Animadver- 

 sions. 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 Am- 

 sterdam, 1715, and has appended to it La Suite du 

 Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences 

 secretes, touchant la nouvelle Philosophie," &c. 



So much in deference to Pope, — whose only 

 object, however, was to make Mrs. Fermor ac- 

 quainted with so much of Rosicrucianism as was 

 necessary to the comprehension of the machinery 

 of his poem. Mr. E. S. Taylor must go farther 

 afield if he is desirous of " earning the vera 

 adeptus," and becoming, like Butler's Ralpho — 



*' For Mystic Learning wondrous able, 

 In magic Talisman and Cabal, 

 Whose primitive tradition reaches 

 As far as Adam's first green breeches ; 

 Deep-sighted in Intelligences, 

 Ideas, Atoms, Influences ; 

 And much of Terra-Incognita, 

 Th' intelligible world could say ; 

 A deep Occult Philosopher, 

 As learned as the wild Irish are. 

 Or Sir Agrippa ; for profound 

 And solid lying much renowned. 

 He Anthroposophus, and Fludd, 

 And Jacob Behmen understood ; 

 Knew many an amulet and charm. 

 That would do neither good nor harm ; \ 

 In Rost-Crucian lore as learned 

 As he that vere adeptus earned." 



Hudibras, Part i. Canto 1. 



These lines enumerate, in a scarcely satirical 

 form, the objects and results of a study oi Rosicru- 

 cianism, in'%o far as it differs from that of alchemy 

 and the occult sciences. The history of the 

 Rosicrucians, — or rather the inquiry as to whether 

 actually existed at any time such a college or 

 brotherhood, and, If so, to what degree of an- 

 tiquity can it lay claim, — forms another and, per- 

 haps, somewhat more profitable subject of atten- 

 tion. This question, however, having been fuUy 

 discussed elsewhere, I will conclude by a catalogue 

 raLionne of such books and essays (the most im- 

 portant of which are readily obtainable) as will 

 enable your correspondent to acquire for himself 

 the information he seeks. 



Allgemeine und General Reformation der ganzen 

 weiten Welt, beneben der Fama Fraternitatis, oder 

 Enstehung der Briiderschaft des IcJblichen Ordens des 

 Rosenkreutzes, &c. 8vo. Cassel, 1614. [Ascribed to 

 John Valentine Andrea. In this pamphlet occurs the 

 first mention of the society ; no allusion being made to 

 it in the works of Bacon, Paracelsus, Agrippa, &c. It 

 was republished at Frankfort in 1617 under a some- 

 what different title. Appended to it is a tract en- 

 titled " Sendbrieff, oder Bericht an AUe welche von 

 den neuen BriiderschafFt des Ordens von Rosen- Creutz 

 genannt etwas gelesen," &c. This work contains a full 

 account of the origin and tenets of the brotherhood. 



