Saturday, August 20, 2005; A16

The Aug. 16 news article about Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. quoted him as saying, "I recognize that I am something of a vox clamans in terris in this area."

The correct Latin phrase is "vox clamantis in deserto." (That p hrase garners zero Google hits aside from those related to Mr. Roberts; " vox clamantis in de serto" gets more than 16,600.)

This phrase also appears five times in the Bible, including in all four gospels, referring to Isaiah 40:3, where the King James Version translates it as, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness," and "Prepare ye the way of th e Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

The Latin phrase, by the way, is well known to thousands of graduates of Dartmouth College as the school motto, but it appears to have fallen into disuse at Harvard in the 1970s.

JAMES E. ROOKS JR.

Washington