The orator should consider what the subject is upon which he is to
speak, before whom, for whom, against whom, at what time, in what place,
under what conditions, what the public think of it, what the judges may
think of it before they hear him, and what he himself has to desire, and
what to apprehend. Whoever makes these reflections will know where he
should naturally begin. But now orators call exordium anything with
which they begin, and consider it of advantage to make the beginning
with some brilliant thought. Undoubtedly many things are taken into the
exordium which are drawn from other parts of the cause or at least are
common to them, but nothing in either respect is better said than that
which can not be said so well elsewhere.