Three generations

34Q MEN AND WOMEN MET BY THE WAY
she calls a " procession," the figures in French litera-
ture, that they may pass in their order before her
readers, and it is a procession which will continue
while France and her literature have an existence.
In the meantime it may be permitted to the member
of a former generation to recall briefly from frequent
oblivion such of these lesser lights as came within her
knowledge, and are within her time extinguished, or
far gone on the way to extinction. There was Dr.
Gilbert, the kindly humorous writer, whose " De
Profundis " gave great pleasure to some of his fellow-
men in my little town. There was Charles Gibbon,
who came up to London with William Black, a pair of
bold adventurers from old " St. Mungo's City." They
followed in the footsteps of another pair, Robert
Buchanan and Gray of the Luggie, who hailed from
the same indomitable quarter, with a like daring
intention of setting the Thames on fire. Gibbon and
Black carried no such tragedy in their skirts as did
Buchanan and poor young Gray — the lad without the
means left to secure food and shelter, reduced to that
fatal night's sleep in one of the London parks, which
started to rapid growth the seeds of consumption, and
laid him in his grave within a few months. Gibbon
never reached the height to which Black attained,
comparatively early in his career, by his " Daughter
of Heth " and his " Princess of Thule," which estab-
lished his reputation and ensured his success. Black
was certainly the more gifted of the two men, with the
keener and more delicate insight, but Gibbon had his
own special faculty, his broadly humorous percep-
tions, his truthfulness to nature as he knew it, and his
unfailing kindliness. His attempts to extend and
elaborate the motives of some of the old Scotch