“If there were a fair prospect of carrying the Gospel into regions where it was before unknown,—­if such a project did not expose the best possessions of the country to extreme danger, and if it was in the hands of men who were discreet as well as devout, we should consider it to be a scheme of true piety, benevolence, and wisdom:  but the baseness and malignity of fanaticism shall never prevent us from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and its activity.  For what vice can be more tremendous than that which, while it wears the outward appearance of religion, destroys the happiness of man, and dishonours the name of God?”

In the second article on Methodism, he returns, as his manner was, to the ground formerly traversed, and claims the praise of all reasonable men for his previous strictures.—­

“In routing out a nest of consecrated cobblers, and in bringing to light such a perilous heap of trash as we were obliged to work through, in our articles upon the Methodists and Missionaries, we are generally conceived to have rendered an useful service to the cause of rational religion.”

But he had been rebuked by the admirers of the Cobblers, and now he turns upon his rebukers with characteristic vigour.  Prominent among these was the Rev. John Styles, and Mr. Styles, unhappily for his cause and happily for his opponent, made a grotesque slip which Sydney turned to the best advantage.—­

“In speaking of the cruelties which their religion entails upon the Hindoos, Mr. Styles is peculiarly severe upon us for not being more shocked at their piercing their limbs with kimes.  This is rather an unfair mode of alarming his readers with the idea of some unknown instrument.  He represents himself as having paid considerable attention to the manners and customs of the Hindoos; and, therefore, the peculiar stress he lays upon this instrument is naturally calculated to produce, in the minds of the humane, a great degree of mysterious terror.  A drawing of the kime was imperiously called for; and the want of it is a subtle evasion, for which Mr. Styles is fairly accountable.  As he has been silent on this subject, it is for us to explain the plan and nature of this terrible and unknown piece of mechanism. Kimes, then, are neither more nor less than a false print in the Edinburgh Review for knives; and from this blunder of the printer has Mr. Styles manufactured this Daedalean instrument of torture, called a kime!  We were at first nearly persuaded by his argument against kimes; we grew frightened;—­we stated to ourselves the horror of not sending missionaries to a nation which used kimes;—­we were struck with the nice and accurate information of the Tabernacle upon this important subject:—­but we looked in the errata, and found Mr. Styles to be always Mr. Styles—­always cut off from every hope of mercy, and remaining for ever himself.”

At the end of the article, the writer glories in the fact that the Government of India is beginning to harry the missionaries.—­