Part 4 / Book 3 — CHAPTER XII.
Reading edition
OF THE PARTS OF AN ORATION, AND THEIR ORDER.
The necessary parts of an oration are but two; propositions and proof; which are, as it were, the problem and demonstration.
The proposition is the explication or opening of the matter to be proved. And proof is the demonstration of the matter propounded.
To these necessary parts are sometimes added two other, the proem and the epilogue; neither of which is any proof.
So that in some there be four parts of an oration; the proem; the proposition, or as others call it, the narration; the proofs, which contain confirmation, confutation, amplification, and diminution; and the epilogue.