not detain a single train even for an
hour. General Hooker and staff declared that they did not believe such a
feat possible; yet it was actually accomplished without any detention to
the trains whatever, and in a period of time so brief as to be almost
incredible. _In less than two days_ the trusses of the three spans were
placed in position.

If there is any one faculty which General Haupt appears to possess in a
preeminent degree, it is _resource_. He never finds an engineering
problem so difficult that some satisfactory mode of solution does not
present itself to his mind. He seems to comprehend intuitively the
difficulties of a position, and the means of surmounting them. He never
waits; if he cannot readily obtain the material he desires, he takes
that at hand. His new work on "Military Bridges" exhibits this
power of resource in a remarkable degree; it is full of expedients,
novel, practical, and useful, among which may be mentioned
expedients for crossing streams in front of the enemy by means of
blanket-boats,--ingenious substitutes for pontoon-bridges, floats, and
floating-bridges,--plans for the _complete_ destruction of railroad
bridges and track, and for reconstructing track,--modes of defence for
lines of road, etc.: for the book, be it observed, is not limited in its
contents to the single subject indicated by its title.

The design of the author, as stated in the Introduction, appears to have
been to give to the army a practically useful book. He has not failed to
draw from other sources where suitable material was furnished, an
indebtedness which he has gracefully acknowledged; but a great part of
the book contains new and original plans and expedients, the fruits of
the experience and observation of the author while in charge of the
construction and transportation for the armies of the Rappahannock, of
Virginia, and of the Potomac, under Generals McDowell, Pope, McClellan,
Burnside, Hooker, and Meade. It is a book no officer can afford to be
without; and to the general reader who wishes to be thoroughly versed in
the operations of the war, it will commend itself as replete with
information on this subject.

_Meditations on the Essence of Christianity, and on the
Religious Questions of the Day._ By M. GUIZOT. Translated from
the French under the Superintendence of the Author. London:
JOHN MURRAY.

Whoever is familiar with religious controversies, past and present, has
not fai