The Education of an Orator, Vol. II

many others have also published several books on each one of these subjects. I see that to weave all of these together is a nearly infinite labor, and I am exhausted by the mere thought of the task I have undertaken. Yet I must persevere, because I have begun, and if my strength should fail me, my spirit must nonetheless persist.

I. That which is called a commencement in Latin, or an exordium an opening or introduction, the Greeks seem to have named with greater reason a prooimion prelude or fore-song. By our word, we merely signify the beginning, but they show quite clearly that this part is an introduction before the entry into the matter 2 of which one must speak. Whether this is because oimē a tune or song means a song, and players of the lyre gave the name prooimion prelude to those few things which they sing before beginning the legitimate contest to gain favor, and orators also marked with the same name those things which they say beforehand to win the minds of the judges 3 before they begin their case; or whether, because the same Greeks call a way oimon a path or way, it was established to call what is placed before the entry into the matter by this name: it is certainly a prooimion which can be said before the judge before he has understood the case. It is a faulty practice in our schools that we always use an exordium as if 4 the judge already knew the case. The license for this practice comes from the fact that before a declamation, that image of a trial is set forth. But in the forum as well, that event...