18 AUGUST 1906, Page 13

[To ma EDITOR OW THE " SPEOTATOR1 SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr.

W. A. Clarke, quotes from Webster a definition of "sect" as " a part , cut of " (Spectator, August 11th, p. 198). The word has, as Pro- fessor Skeat observes, nothing to do with aecare, to cut; it is from sec, the root of sequi, to follow, and literally means "following" some leader. This does not, perhaps, make much difference as to the theological point in dispute; but it is as well to be accurate.—I am, Sir, &o.,