OR AY'S LETTERS CHIEF RABBI VACANCY. ' -. • -■ ■' fl ■

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1623, 14 December 1912, Page 9

OR AY'S LETTERS

CHIEF RABBI VACANCY. ' -. • -■ ■' fl ■

' There is no ' doubt ttliat' the legend of Gray was in need of being sifted and rationalised when Mr. D. C. Tovey began to work on the masterly edition of the tetters which he lived- (and unhappily only just lived) to complete this year.: Tho 6hy and , retioent" little-poet, who in academic- seolueion gayp a li&tLnm to tiwj.

pondering and composing and retouching of a small handful of exquisite poems, was a figure whom it was all too easy to divine, or to think we divined, where he lurkod among a generation incapable of understanding him. It was irresistible to sso. him as an amo incomprise, shrinking in sensitive pride from a public that had not yet learned to admire? mountain scenery, and from undergraduates who still thought it amusing to play practical jokes on tho timid and elderly. The sympathy, the -understanding denied him in jiis own day, should-be mado up to him in an age of better taste and manners; the poet who disdained to explain himself seemed to need no further explanation. But Mr. Tovey, a critic of admirable' humour and perspicuity, took the legend of Gray in hand with a sounder ssnse of reality, aiid with a sympathy less sentimental arid more discerning. Gray at least would have appreciated the changethat Gray whom we now discover as the writer of the letters which were so much better knowu than he was known himself. ._ Gray's correspondence is long enough, intimate enough, outspoken enough, < to show us his mind in all its relations. And there it is, as with Mr. Tovcy's help we can see, and perhaps wonder at ourselves for not having seen it more eWarly before— a. comfortable a:.«- not overadventurous mind, as well as, within its limits, an acute and responsive, and always and everywhere a charming pne; a mind at harmony with itself and the world, and quite secure from the gad-fly which drives men to worry about things which do not personally affect them. Mr. Tovey's work on Gray is invaluable in its completeness and unfailingly delightful in its vividness and humour. His was the kind of editing and writing which is usually called scholarly, but we hesitate to use a word which may carry with it a_ suggestion of coldness and li'felessness. Never was an editor more thoroughly humane, quicker • to. understand and to help, or less inclined to'over-value the help of any sort of editor. His introductions to the first two volumes (published 'some years back), the first on Gray, the second on his friends, are unfortunately not followed : by a third, in the third vplume; but we have the same exactitude and wealth of annotation. Perhaps, to bo frank, the three together form what is called "a mine of curious information," rather than tho edition which we should choose to read Gray's letters in. As to that, Mr. Tovey knew well, none better, that when we read for pleasure we do not really want notes of any kind, and in these volumes we feel at times that we cannot got at the.text for the comment. "I can only excuse myself completely," he says, "on the plea that no one ia obliged to read them." He forgot perhaps how,;entertaining he had mado them. As they sp/ead upwards'from the bottom of the. page, they attract the eye, and hold it: when attracted; another ibook seems to wind-its way into tho bopk wo are' euppojed to be reading. If it is a fault in an editor to be so seductive, then Mr. Tovey, as an editor had one fault.—"London Times."

EXPECTED APPOINTMENT OF DR. DRACHMA'N.. The problem, which has been troubling Aiiglo-Jewiy for more than a year, that of finding a successor tc the late Dr. Adler as- Chief Eabbi, at length seems within measurable distance ef .solution (writes a Jewish . correspondent of the London "Daily Mail" on October 23). ■ Until recently the chief candidates' wer,e Dr. Hyamson, head of the Jewish Ecclesiastical Court in London, and-Dr. Hertz. Th-en Dr. Bernard Drachman, of Now York, who had. been invited, by the Selectio?i''Committ€e to become a candidate,'arrived in England. • He has already preached'in. two important synagogues in Lon(lon.aud has attended, an important oommunal- function. Thos-3 who haw.come in contact, with him" recognise in. him .. an erudite scholar of' dignified bearing and high culture. Most of the honorary officers of tho ■United Synagogue, including the senipr vice-president, Mr.- A; H. -Jessel, ICC, hoard Dr. Drachman preach at St. John's Wood Synagogue. Tho '.'rabbi'-created.-profound impression, ''and "maiiy"'of :i ;those who heard him are convinced that in Dr. Drachman will bo found the ideal man for Hie chief rabbinate. With the object of bringing, .about an early election pressure is now ''being brought to bear upon the Selection Committee to propose Dr. Drachmae's ekction. There is little doubt that the other two candidates will withdraw. Although born, in New' York and !i graduate of Columbia .University, Dr. Drachman spent a great .deal of his time in the leading Continental Jewish seminaries; where he obtained the highest rabbinical diplomas,- together with the degress, of Doctor of 'Philosophy.. .For tlvroa years' he acted as rabbi over the Breslau community. . He returned to ; . New -York; jvliere he was appointed Professor of Biblical Exegesis and Hebrew Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. Later he became dean.of tho. samo faculty and Professor of- -Bibln and Kabbinical Codes at the Jewish Theological iSeriiinary of America. Ho now holds an important.appointment over the two largest orthodox congregations in New York.

„ Mr.. Borneo .Gardiner, ■ of Wellington, sifflour, who was given a farewell concert, in' the Town Hall a few months ago, has been, entirely successful in his venture on the vaudeville stage under the Rickards management. Ho has dressed "the' turn" neatly, and has already acquired a good idea of stage technique to assist him in his art. - Mr. Gardiner may visit New Zealand with a. Rickards company early in the New Tear, . Miss Carrio Moore, of musical comedy fame, supported by a company of firstclass artists, including Mr, Percy Clifton, thc'clever character actor, who scored such 'a succAjg in "The Arcadians," is now touring the West Coast, and doing splendid business.. The company commence an inland !tour. of tho North Island on December 16. They appear in the new theatre in Napier during Christmas week; tho Wellington • season commences on January 18. The tour is under the direction of Mr. Alf Linley.' . Gounod's three-act comic opera, "Lβ Medicin malgre lui," has just been produced at Dresden with great success. The libretto, of course, is founded on Moliere's comedy of that name.