*

E.P. WHIPPLE was the Fourth of July orator of the city of Boston. The
_Morning Post_ says, "his ability is so agile, elegant, and hilarious,
that his readers generally do not discern the profundity and
comprehensiveness of his nature or the progressive power of thought
manifested in his writings. We await impatiently the publication
of his late oration. It will be an apt opportunity, by the way, to
compare Mr. E. Everett with him, each having just spoken on a similar
national occasion. His level, 'fairspoken, immaculate regularity' will
contrast widely with the bold, vital vigor and originality of Mr. W.
No man of constitutional timidity, feeble will, and shallow thought
can ever have a real right to the title of orator. Men of minds
cultivated overmuch, and elaborately trained, are apt to lack central
spiritual vitality, as some fruits grown to great size by art of
the gardener fail of their native flavor, become insipid, and even
_hollow_ at the center."

* * * * *

THE "HISTORY OF RELIGION," by the celebrated John Evelyn, author of
"Sylva," &c., now first published from the original MS. in the Library
at Wotton, with notes by the Rev. R.M. Evanson, is among the books
announced by Colburn, for the first of July. The journals, in
anticipation, express some curiosity upon the subject, whether it
be pedantic, orthodox, and trimming, like the author, or whether it
contain any of the Chubb and Toland spirit. Two new and important
works, ethically related to this, have just been issued; the one
in France, called _Qu'est-ce que la Religion, d'apres la Nouvelle
Philosophie Allemande_, wherein Feuerbach's daring evolutions of
Hegel's principles are translated for the benefit of those who cannot
read German; the other, called _The Progress of Intellect_, showing
the various developments of religious ideas through history.

* * * * *

LEIGH HUNT, it is apprehended, will be appointed laureate. The
_Athenaeum_ objects, and we think very properly urges, that if the
office is to be continued, it should be given to the finest living
poet of her Majesty's own sex, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This
appropriation of the laurel would in a manner recompense two poets
by a single act.

* * * * *

Mr. ROBERT LEMON, of the State Paper Office, to whom we are indebted
for the discovery of the MS. of Milton's Treatise on Christian
Doctrine,