SOURCE: A preface to Prefaces to Terence's Comedies and Plautus's Comedies, 1694. Reprint by William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1968, pp. i-xxiii.

Echard was one of the most respected translators of the works of Terence. Here, he presents an overview of Terence's style and works, noting that his only real fault was a lack of comic vision.

As for our Author, wherever Learning, Wit or Judgment have flourish'd, this Poet has always had an extraordinary Reputation. To mention all his Excellencies and Perfections were a Task too difficult for us, and perhaps for the greatest Criticks alive; so very few there are that perfectly understand all of 'em; yet we shall venture at some of the most Remarkable.

To begin with him in general, He was certainly the most Exact, the most Elaborate, and withal the most Natural of all Dramatick Poets; His Stile so neat and pure, his Characters...