"
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.
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