DR. ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic
Literature in the University of Cambridge, in seconding the vote of
thanks to the speakers, moved by the President of the Jewish
Historical Society (Sir Lionel Abrahams, K.C.B.), said that the
Chairman had already paid a tribute to the memory of Arthur Davis. But
a twice-told tale was not stale in repetition when the tale was told
of such a man. He was a real scholar; not only in the general sense of
one who loved great books, but also in the special sense that he
possessed the technical knowledge of an expert. His "Hebrew Accents"
reveals Arthur Davis in these two aspects. It shows mastery of an
intricate subject, a subject not likely to attract the mere
dilettante. But it also reveals his interest in the Bible as
literature. He appreciated both the music of words and the melody of
ideas. When the work appeared, a foreign scholar asked: "Who was his
teacher?" The answer was: himself. There is a rather silly proverb
that the self-taught man has a fool for his master. Certainly Arthur
Davis had no fool for his pupil. And though he had no teacher, he had
what is better, a fine capacity for comradeship in studies. "Acquire
for thyself a companion," said the ancient Rabbi. There is no
friendship equal to that which is made over the common study of books.
At the Talmud meetings held at the house of Arthur Davis were founded
lifelong intimacies. Unpretentious in their aim, there was in these
gatherings a harmony of charm and earnestness; pervading them was the
true "joy of service." Above all he loved the liturgy. Here the
self-taught man must excel. Homer said:--
Dear to gods and men is sacred song.
Self-taught I sing: by Heaven and Heaven alone
The genuine seeds of poesy are sown.
And, as the expression of his inmost self, he gave us the best edition
of the Festival Prayers in any language: better than Sachs'--than
which praise can go no higher. This Prayer Book is his true memorial,
unless there be a truer still. Perhaps his feeling that he might
after all have lost something because he had no teacher made him so
wonderful a teacher of his own daughters. In their continuance of his
work his personality endures. At the end of his book on Accents he
quoted, in Hebrew, a sentence from Jeremiah, with a clever play on the
double meaning of the word which signifies at once "accent" and
"taste." Thinking of his record, and how his beautiful spirit animates
those near and dear to him, we may indeed apply to him this same text:
"His taste remaineth in him and his fragrance is not changed."