el in regard to the quick work which is to be
made of the kingdom.

The twenty-ninth verse should be read with some acceleration of voice,
and without any special expression, the reader assuming that the promise
made by the king to Daniel, in the sixteenth verse, if he can interpret
the writing, was fulfilled. This twenty-ninth verse must not, therefore,
be read as imparting new information.

In the thirtieth verse, 'In that night' must be brought fully out,
through a time emphasis, to mark how immediate was the fulfilment of
Daniel's interpretation; there must be some acceleration of voice upon
'was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans,' and a quite strong emphasis
given to 'slain.'

In the thirty-first verse, 'took' is the foreground word, the emphasis
of it implying an accordance with Daniel's interpretation; 'being about
threescore and two years old,' should be read as a gratuitously affixed
fact, having no particular bearing upon what has been related.

Cultivated people cannot away with what is generally understood by
'elocution,' which is rather a vocal and Delsartian display than an
honest vocalization, which good reading should be, of what has been
intellectually and spiritually assimilated. Reading is not acting. The
first thing to be done to bring 'elocution' into good repute (it is
certainly not in good repute at present) is to free reading from all
_strain_ of expression--to reduce emphasis and attain to the greatest
degree of simplicity _compatible with the subject-matter_. And one
important feature of reading which should receive special attention, as
a means to this end, is the light touch, which conveys the impression
that the mind of the reader does not come down upon the parts receiving
the same, those parts expressing what has been anticipated, or should
be taken for granted, etc., and constituting the remote background of
expression.

The highest result which can be exhibited of literary culture and a
corresponding vocal culture, is an organic melody, in the reading of a
great poem, the outcome of the poem's organic life. By melody, in
reading, is meant that organic variety in the use of all the vocal
functions and affections, that arabesqueness of expression, which does
not allow the ear of the hearer to detect a regular recurrence of any of
these functions and affections. There is melody of pause, of inflection,
of rhyme, of rhythm, of time, of force, of emphasis, and of every vocal
affectio