Antiquity_ is to be diligently inquired after and submissively listened to; for that _this_, in the end, will prove our _only_ safe guide. § 19. Let this be a sufficient reply to my Reviewer in the “Church Quarterly”—who, I observe, notes, as a fundamental defect in my Articles, “the want of a consistent working Theory, such as would enable us to weigh, as well as count, the suffrages of MSS., Versions, and Fathers.”(25) He is reminded that it was no part of my business to propound a “Theory.” My _method_ I have explained often and fully enough. My business was to prove that the theory of Drs. Westcott and Hort,—which (as Bp. Ellicott’s pamphlet proves) has been mainly adopted by the Revisionists,—is not only a worthless, but an utterly absurd one. And I have proved it. The method I persistently advocate in every case of a supposed doubtful Reading, (I say it for the last time, and request that I may be no more misrepresented,) is, that _an appeal shall be unreservedly made to Catholic Antiquity_; and that the combined verdict of Manuscripts, Versions, Fathers, shall be regarded as decisive. § 20. I find myself, in the mean time, met by the scoffs, jeers, misrepresentations of the disciples of this new School; who, instead of producing historical facts and intelligible arguments, appeal to the decrees of their teachers,—which _I_ disallow, and which _they_ are unable to substantiate. They delight in announcing that Textual Criticism made “_a fresh departure_” with the edition of Drs. Westcott and Hort: that the work of those scholars “_marks an era_,” and is spoken of in Germany as “_epoch-making_.” My own belief is, that the Edition in question, if it be epoch-making at all, marks _that_ epoch at which the current of critical thought, reversing its wayward course, began once more to flow in its ancient healthy channel. “Cloud-land” having been duly sighted on the 14th September 1881,(26) “a fresh departure” was insisted upon by public opinion,—and a deliberate return was made,—to _terra firma_, and _terra cognita_, and common sense. So far from “its paramount claim to the respect of future generations,” being “the restitution of a more ancient and a purer Text,”—I venture to predict that the edition of the two Cambridge Professors will be hereafter remembered as indicating the furthest point ever reached by the self-evolved imaginations of English disciples of the school of Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles. The recoil promises to be complete. English good sense is ever observed to prevail in the long run; although for a few years a foreign fashion may acquire the ascendant, and beguile a few unstable wits.