ance of it, and by the tone-color
given to it.

The following striking simile from II Kings, xxi. 13, should be read
with an accelerated utterance, implying the ease with which the act
illustrated will be performed: 'And I will stretch over Jerusalem the
line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe
Jerusalem _as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside
down_.'

The following comparison (Isaiah, lv. 10, 11) should be read in slower
time, in itself considered, and, partly, for the reason that it precedes
what it illustrates (a due expectation must be awakened as to what
follows): '_As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth
and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater_; so shall
my word be that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it.'

In still slower time, every appreciative reader would spontaneously read
the following comparison (Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I., w. 591-600):

his form had not yet lost
All her original brightness; nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured: _as when the sun, new risen,
Looks thro' the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs._ Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all the archangel.

An increased time of utterance must be secured through the prolongable
vowels and consonants, rather than through pauses, though the latter
must also be somewhat extended. Accelerated utterance must not impress
as hurry.

The fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel, descriptive of Belshazzar's
feast, affords good illustrations of the slighting of speech. (Note 5.)
Take, for example, the first five verses (the parts which should be
slighted are indicated by smaller type):

1. Belshazzar, =the king=, made a great feast =to a thousand of his
lords=, and drank wine =before the thousand=.

2. Belshazzar, =whiles he tasted the wine=, commanded to bring the golden
and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the
temple which was in Jerusalem; =that the king, and his princes, his
wives, and his concubines=, might drink there