SECOND SESSION

It was voted, in accordance with committee recommendation, to hold the next annual meeting of the Association at the San Francisco Institute of Art, on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving Day, 1910.

The Executive Committee was by vote requested to consider the feasibility of a proposed plan whereby several learned societies of the Pacific Coast, including this Association, should hold a joint annual meeting.

The number of persons present at this session was twenty-four.

THIRD SESSION

At 8 P.M. the President delivered the annual address: The Development and Present Status of Romanic Dialectology.

FOURTH SESSION

The Committee on Nominations made its report; whereupon the following officers were elected for 1909-1910:

President, C. B. Bradley.

Vice-Presidents, G. Hempl.

L. J. Richardson.

Secretary-Treasurer, O. M. Johnston.

Executive Committee, The above-named officers, and

J. T. Allen.

C. Searles.

J. E. Church, Jr.

J. Elmore.

The Committee on Treasurer's Report gave notice that the accounts had been examined and found exact. Adopted.

Professor H. R. Fairclough was made the Association's official delegate at the next meeting of the American Philological Association.

The number of persons present at this session was twenty-six.

FIFTH SESSION

A vote of thanks for hospitality was extended to the Regents of the University of California, the Directors of the San Francisco Institute of Art, and the Directors of the University Club.

A vote of appreciation for services was extended to the retiring Secretary and Treasurer.

The number of persons present at this session was twenty-five.

Two meetings of the Executive Committee were held, one November 26 and the other November 27. The following persons were elected to membership:

Professor R. M. Alden, Leland Stanford Jr. University.

Professor Irmagarde Richards, Mills College.

Mr. P. A. Knowlton, Leland Stanford Jr. University.

III. ABSTRACTS

I. Notes on the History of the Doctrine of Poetic Justice, by Professor Raymond Macdonald Alden, of the Leland Stanford Jr. University.

The doctrine of poetic justice may be defined as the requirement that the conclusion of a work of fiction, particularly a tragic drama, shall be such that virtuous characters may be seen to have been rewarded and vicious characters to have been punished; or, in more moderate form, that the catastrophe shall be the obvious outcome of the character and conduct of the persons concerned. Widely held in the centuries following the Revival of Learning, the doctrine may be said to have been based on two passages in Aristotle's Poetics: (a) that in which he taught that poetry is nobler than history because dealing with general truths rather than particular occurrences, and (b) that in which he objected to the choice of the sufferings of a virtuous man as a theme for tragedy. The latter passage was much discussed by the Renaissance commentators on Aristotle, little heed being given to the fact that he had objected quite as strongly to the punishment of the wholly vicious as a tragic theme. Significant passages are to be found in the treatises of Minturno, Denores, and Nisielli, among the Italians; and in the writings of Scudéry, Mesnardière, d'Aubignac, and Fontenelle, among the French. Poetic justice was not explicitly discussed in Elizabethan England, though Sidney and Bacon may be thought to have given it implicit support; in the seventeenth century it found notable expression in the writings of Thomas Rymer, and in the eighteenth century in those of John Dennis. Addison opposed it; Dr. Samuel Johnson favored it, but with misgivings. In German literature are found one of the most striking defences of the doctrine, by Lessing, and one of the most violent attacks upon it, by Schopenhauer. In the nineteenth century it was but slightly discussed, but the whole recent tendency has been away from poetic justice, in favor of the recognition of the legitimacy of tragic pathos, and even of such tragedy as presents human fate as lawless, unintelligible, and chaotic.

2. Graphical Analysis of the Siamese "Tones," by Professor Cornelius B. Bradley, of the University of California.

The so-called "Tones" of certain Oriental languages of the Chinese type have been the source of no little perplexity to students because

of uncertainty as to their precise nature, as determined by ear alone, and from the resulting confusion or irrationality in their nomenclature. Modern methods of recording speech, it was thought, should make it possible to determine the facts beyond peradventure, and so end the uncertainty. Experiment was made with the five "tones" usually listed in Siamese. Five words were found identical in articulation and quantity, and differing only in tonal quality. With the help of the Rousselot apparatus, records were made of these five words; measurements were made of the wave-lengths of pitch at points

equidistant through

out each trace; and with these measure

ments, as ordinates of pitch, the curves of pitch were plotted on a chart shown at the meeting. The five "tones" there

appeared as follows: No. I was a line beginning near the medium pitch of the voice, obliquely rising, and terminating at about the octave above. No. 2 was a similar descending line, beginning near the same point as No. 1, and ending at a similar distance be

low. No. 3 was a sweeping curve, convex upward, starting somewhat above the initial point of No. 1, rising about half an octave to its climax, then turning in a broad curve and dropping about an octave from its highest point. No. 4 was a somewhat sinuous horizontal trace at about the medium pitch, ending with a slight but unmistakable drop. No. 5 was a similar trace (but without the conspicuous final drop) placed at an interval of about a third below No. 4. Nos. 4 and 5 are recognized by the ear as monotones. No. 5 is distinguished from No. 4 not merely by the pitch interval mentioned, but by a marked pecul

iarity of tonal quality which the writer identifies as nasality, although instrumental verification has not yet been secured. It is proposed to name these "tones" as follows: No. 1, " rising tone"; No. 2, "falling tone"; No. 3, "circumflex"; No. 4, "middle tone"; No. 5, “depressed tone."

These are the tones of long syllables; that is, syllables either with long vowel, or else with short vowel followed by a nasal consonant. All other syllables are short for tonal purposes. Tone 4 and tone 5 are heard also in short syllables ;· 4 not as an independent "tone," but only as a result of weakening of other tones before stress. In addition to these there is a sixth tone, which is not included in the lists, apparently because it has been regarded as a short variety of No. 1 or No. 3. It is, however, quite distinct from either, being a short high note at about the level of the crest of the circumflex. might be called the "elevated tone," to pair it with the "depressed." This whole system of tones shifts bodily upwards or downwards with the raising or lowering of the medium pitch (which is its centre), under varying conditions of emphasis or emotional excitement. Increase of these increases also the amplitude of the slides and curves.

It

3. The Identity of the Child in Virgil's Pollio: an Afterword, by Professor J. E. Church, Jr., of the University of Nevada.

Additional evidence was presented to show that Virgil felt himself at liberty to write a salutatory poem to an unborn child and to prophesy that this child would be a son.

This paper will appear in full in Classical Philology.

4. Notes on Elision in Greek, by Professor E. B. Clapp, of the University of California.

The ordinary facts with regard to elision are well known, but full and exact statements are difficult to find. The usage of our Mss is not a safe guide to the actual practice of the writers themselves, though the general uniformity of tradition indicates a fairly authentic. transmission of ancient usage. In poetry, the necessities of rhythm furnish us with a surer basis. About 60 per cent of all cases of elision in modern texts affect the vowel -e, and about half as many the vowel -a. The remainder are distributed with approximate equality between -ɩ and -0. Elision of -au is not unusual in the older poets, and undeniable cases of the elision of -o occur in Homer and