DEAR SIR,--I am very loth to reject the ‘Two Temples’ as the article contains some exquisitely fine description, and some pungent satire, but my editorial experience compels me to be very careful in offending the religious sensibilities of the public, and the moral of the ‘Two Temples’ would sway against us the whole power of the pulpit, to say nothing of Brown, and the congregation of Grace Church. I will take this opportunity to apologise to you for making a slight alteration in the ‘Encantadas,’ in the last paragraph of the ‘Chola Widow,’ which I thought would be improved by the omission of a few words. That I did not injure the idea, or mutilate the touching figure you introduced, by the slight excision I made, I received good evidence of, in a letter from James R. Lowell, who said that the figure of the cross in the ass’s neck, brought tears into his eyes, and he thought it the finest touch of genius he had seen in prose. The only complaint that I have heard about the ‘Encantadas’ was that it might have been longer.--Very truly, Your obedient, CHAS. F. BRIGGS. H. MELVILLE, Esq. TEMPLE FIRST ‘This is too bad,’ said I, ‘here have I tramped this blessed Sunday morning, all the way from the Battery, three long miles, for this express purpose, prayer-book under arm; here I am, I say, and, after all, I can’t get in. ‘Too bad. And how disdainful the great, fat-paunched, beadle-faced man looked, when in answer to my humble petition, he said they had no galleries. Just the same as if he’d said, they didn’t entertain poor folks. But I’ll wager something that had my new coat been done last night, as the false tailor promised, and had I, arrayed therein this bright morning, tickled the fat-paunched, beadle-faced man’s palm with a bank-note, then, gallery or no gallery, I would have had a fine seat in this marble-buttressed, stained-glass, spick-and-span new temple.