attracted. This poetical tone pervades, more or less, the delineations
of all his heroines; and the charm which it imparts, perhaps more than
counterbalances the detrimental tendency of sameness. At the same time,
we may add, that it is least exhibited when circumstances seem least to
require it. His heroines are, on the whole, better treated, as such,
than his heroes, who are, for the most part, thrown into the ring to be
bandied about, the sport of circumstances;--owing almost all their
interest to the events which thicken around them. Many of them exhibit
no definite character, or, when they rise above nonentities, are not so
much individuals as abstractions. A strong fraternal likeness to the
vacillating Waverley does not raise them in our esteem. They seem too
nearly imitations of the most faulty portion of that otherwise admirable
tale.

_Scenic Description_.

Good as are the descriptions of quiescent objects, it is in his
treatment of events,--of the visible operations of man, or of the
elements,--that the author displays most power. What have we finer of
its kind, than the storm in the Antiquary? The sullen sunset--the
advancing tide--the rocks half hidden by the rising foam--the marks of
promised safety fading from sight, and with them the hope they
nourished--the ledge which the sufferers gained with difficulty--on the
one side, a raging sea, and on the other, a barrier that forbade
retreat! Guy Mannering contains another masterpiece--the night attack of
Portanferry, witnessed by Bertram. We feel as though we were that
person--we see and hear all of which his eyes and ears had cognizance;
and the impression is the more strong, because the writer has told only
_that_, and left the rest to our imagination. This illustrates one
feature of the author's skill. He knows the effect producible by leaving