In the fourth verse, 'They drank wine,' being a mere repetition, should say itself (the mind of the reader not coming down upon it, but keeping along on the upper plane of expression), and the voice should come out strongly upon 'and praised the gods of gold'; but it should be reduced, and somewhat accelerated, upon, 'and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.' Their idolatry having been sufficiently brought out through 'and praised the gods of gold,' it would waste attention to bring forward also the several other materials of which their gods were composed. These should be expressed, as it were, by the way. The mind of the reader is done with the fact of idolatry. In the fifth verse, 'In the same hour, came forth fingers ... and wrote,' should be brought fully to the front, an increase of time being given to 'In the same hour,' to mark distinctly the fact that divine vengeance followed close upon the sacrilege of drinking from the sacred vessels of the temple, which was aggravated by their idolatry (the words 'hour,' 'fingers,' and 'wrote,' receiving each the falling inflection); but 'of a man's hand' should be slighted, the voice being kept up on 'hand,' it being assumed that the fingers were, of course, those of a man's hand, or, at least, of a human hand. The place just _where_ the writing was done, 'over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace,' being of no special importance, under the circumstances, should be slighted. To bring it to the front would cause an entirely unnecessary expenditure of attention on the part of the hearer. It should be left to its own intrinsic value, without any enforcement from the voice; 'and the king saw' comes to the front, the voice falling upon 'saw,' and drifting down over 'the part of the hand that wrote.' As additional examples, take the last seven verses of the chapter: they afford illustrations, too, of the marking of the new idea, as distinguished from the important idea, of a sentence considered by itself: 25. And this =is the writing that was written=, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26. This is the interpretation =of the thing=: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, =and finished it=. 27. TEKEL: =Thou art weighed in the balances, and art= found wanting. 28. PERES: Thy kingdom =is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians=. 29. =Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.= 30. In that night was Belshazzar =the king of the Chaldeans slain=. 31. =And Darius the Median= took =the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old=.