[62]
The length
of the exordium will be determined by the case;
simple cases require a short introduction only,
longer exordia being best suited to cases which are
complicated, suspect or unpopular. As for those
who have laid it down as a law applying to all
exordia that they should not be more than four
sentences long, they are merely absurd. On the
other hand undue length is equally to be avoided,
lest the head should seem to have grown out of all
proportion to the body and the judge should be
wearied by that which ought to prepare him for
what is to follow.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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