The universal genius of Voltaire found it necessary to shine in all branches of literature, and in tragedy to surpass predecessors whom his own authority declared to have surpassed the efforts of the Attic muse. He succeeded in impressing the world with the belief that his innovations had imparted a fresh vitality to French tragedy; in truth, however, they represent no essential advance in art, but rather augmented the rhetorical tendency which paralyses true dramatic life. Such life as his plays possess lies in their political and social sentiments, their invective against tyranny,[111] and their exposure of fanaticism.[112] In other respects his versatility was barren of enduring results. He might take his themes from French history,[113] or from Chinese,[114] or Egyptian,[115] or Syrian,[116] from the days of the Epigoni[117] or from those of the Crusades;[118] he might appreciate Shakespeare, with a more or less partial comprehension of his strength, and condescendingly borrow from and improve the barbarian.[119] But he added nothing to French tragedy where it was weakest--in character; and where it was strongest--in diction--he never equalled Corneille in fire or Racine in refinement. While the criticism to which French tragedy in this age at last began to be subjected has left unimpaired the real titles to immortality of its great masters, the French theatre itself has all but buried in respectful oblivion the dramatic works bearing the name of Voltaire--a name persistently belittled, but second to none in the history of modern progress and of modern civilization. French classical tragedy in its decline.