As a dramatist, the author of _Miss Sara Sampson_, of _Emilia Galotti_, and above all that noble dramatic poem, _Nathan the Wise_, could hardly have owed much to the author of such poor stuff as _The Natural Son_ and _The Father of the Family_.

Lessing had some dramatic fire, invention, spontaneous elevation; he had a certain measure, though not a very large one, of poetic impulse.

Diderot had nothing of all these, but he had the eye of the philosophic critic.
Any one who reads Lessing's dramatic criticisms will see that he did not at all overrate his obligations to his French contemporary.[250] It has been replied to the absurd taunt about the French inventing nothing, that at least Descartes invented German philosophy.

Still more true is it that Diderot invented German criticism.
Diderot's thoughts on the stage, besides his completed plays, and a number of fragmentary scenes, are contained principally in the Paradox on the Player, a short treatise on Dramatic Poetry, and three dialogues appended to _The Natural Son_.

On the plays a very few words will suffice.