2 JANUARY 1904, Page 23

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIE, — It is necessary to

the proper understanding of these words to read the whole of the sentence in which they occur : Quapropter securus judicat orbis terrarum, bonos non ease qui se dividunt ab orbe terrarum in quacunque parte orbis terrarum. This will be found in St. Augustine's " Cont. Ep. Parmen.," Lib. III., c. iv., at the end of the paragraph numbered 24 in Migne's edition. There is nothing to indicate that the words securus judicat orbis terrarum are a quotation from another author, as one of your correspondents suggests. The frequent use of these words is due to the impression they made on J. H. Newman, and to his citation of them in his "Apologia." They were brought to his notice by an article in the Dublin Review for August, 1839, on the " Tracts for the Times." The writer, N. Wiseman, afterwards Cardinal, compared the position of the Tractarians with that of the Donatists, and after quoting the words given above, described them as "a golden sentence on the subject which should be an axiom in theology."—I am, Sir, &c.,

J. A. J. HOTTEIDEN.