Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/66

This page has been validated.
22
A Comparison of the

last have the Preference in my Thoughts, and I am not Singular in my Opinion. lt must be confessed, the Romans have left no Tragedies behind them, that may compare with the Majesty of the Grecian Stage; the best Comedies of Rome were written on the Grecian Plan, but Menander is too far lost to be compared with Terence; only if we may judge by the Method Terence used in forming two Greek Plays into one we shall naturally conclude, since his are perfect upon that Model, that they are more perfect than Menander's were. I shall make no great Difficulty in preferring Plautus to Aristophanes for Wit

and