In spite of the vein of mysticism which occasionally shows in him, it is true in some degree of Diderot himself, if by classicism we mean the tendency to make man the centre of the universe.

Classicism treats man as worthy and great, living his life among cold and neutral forces.

This is the very opposite of the sinfulness, imperfection, and nothingness habitually imputed to man, and the hourly presence of a whole hierarchy of busy supernatural agents placed about man by the Middle Ages.

Yet we cannot but see that Diderot was feeling for dramatic forms and subjects that would have been as little classic as romantic.

He failed in the search.