. I attack these men because they
have foolish notions of religion. The more absurd the passage, the
more necessary it should be displayed--the more urgent the reason for
making the attack at all."

This is at any rate an explanation, even if it does not amount to a
justification; but what is lamentable is that, as in the case of the
Methodists at home, he seems frankly unable to conceive of the passion for
spreading the Gospel which drove men from all that is enjoyable in life to
slave and die under Indian suns. He seems genuinely to believe that the
spread of the Christian religion in India will produce a revolution, and he
turns the ludicrous blunders of religious men into arguments for
slothfulness in evangelization.--

"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 alar