For the Cardinal, Authority was the _sine qua non_ without which there
could be no real faith. Authority was the pilot, without whose steering he
could not feel secure in his personal ship. But with Authority at the
helm, his fears dispersed, his doubts removed.

"I was not ever thus.....
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on!"

Over Francis Newman, dogma and the authority of the Church had no sway. He
dimly discerned a religion which should move forward with men's advance in
knowledge. He imagined an unformalized inward revelation which should
reveal new truths to those who passionately desired Truth above all
things. And when all is said, the union of Authority given in the past,
with the very real mental development which makes for spiritual progress
in the present, is not antagonistic to a wise, strong breadth of view in
the conception of a perfect Church.

But in both points of view, carried to extremes, there are grave perils to
the man who thinks. And I find it impossible to avoid saying here that
Francis Newman did not realize this risk when he refused to "ask for the
old paths," and determined to "see and choose his path" alone and unaided.
We know what the endeavour to found a new church in Syria ended in. We
know how, later, he wrote, held back by no reverence for revealed
religion, no reverence for other men's belief in it. Many of his writings
therefore are painful reading. Though from very early boyhood he had been
really a keen seeker after true religion, an earnest student of the Holy
Scriptures, and a deep thinker, yet, very soon after he had reached young
manhood, it began to be realized by all who knew him that he was very