[To TEM EDITOR OF TEE . SPECFATOR.1 Sin, — In discussing this subject
in the Spectator of March 16th, at p. 415, Mr. Cowley-Brown says .—" If ' sect ' means something cut off from an original body, the Church of England cannot be so described." I had imagined that this ancient popular etymology of " sect " bad long been abundoned ; for even Todd's "Johnson," in 1827, says that " sect " repre- sents "the French seek, Latin sesta, from sectando." " Sect " has, in fact, nothing to do with secare, to cut ; but, as Bre'al says at p. 340 of his "Dictionnaire Etymologique is a derivative of sequi. That is why it meant a faction, a following, a set of people, from the very first. The interesting point is that the words "sect," "suit at law," "suite of rooms," "set of tea-cups," and " sept" are all closely related, and are further related to "sequence." If arguments are to turn upon an etymology, it is obviously advisable to take care that the etymology itself is correct.—
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