We would not be harsh enough to say that the Author of 'Waverley' is in this predicament, but we are most unwillingly compelled to assert that the second effort falls far below the standard of the first.

In 'Waverley' there was brilliancy of genius....

In 'Guy Mannering' there is little else beyond the wild sallies of an original genius, the bold and irregular efforts of a powerful but an exhausted mind.

Time enough has not been allowed him to recruit his resources, both of anecdote and wit; but, encouraged by the credit so justly, bestowed upon one of then most finished portraits ever presented to the world, he has followed up the exhibition with a careless and hurried sketch, which betrays at once the weakness and the strength of its author.
"The character of Dirk Hatteraick is a faithful copy from nature,--it is one of those moral monsters which make us almost ashamed of our kind.
Still, amidst the ruffian and murderous brutality of the smuggler, some few feelings of our common nature are thrown in with no less ingenuity than truth.

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