Isocrates To the Children of Jason 8

[8] This is the reason, then, for these introductory words, that the very first precept I shall present is one of those most often repeated. I am accustomed, that is, to tell the students in my school of rhetoric ¹ that the first question to be considered is—what is the object to be accomplished by the discourse as a whole and by its parts? And when we have discovered this and the matter has been accurately determined, I say that we must seek the rhetorical elements whereby that which we have set out to do may be elaborated and fulfilled. And this procedure I prescribe with reference to discourse, yet it is a principle applicable not only to all other matters, but also to your own affairs.