'A man shall find in the traditions of ASTROLOGY, some pretty and apt _divisions of men's natures_,'--so in the discussions which occur on this same point in Lear, where this part of philosophy comes under a more particular consideration, and the great ministry which it would yield to morality and policy is suggested in a different form, this same reference to the astrological observations repeatedly occurs. The Poet, indeed, discards the astrological _theory _of these natural differences in the dispositions of men, but is evidently in favour of an observation, and inquiry of some sort, into the second causes of these 'sequent effects,' and an anatomy of the living subject is in one case suggested, by a person who is suffering much from the deficiencies of science in this field, as a means of throwing light on it. 'Then let Regan be anatomised.' For in the _Play_,--in the poetic impersonation, which has a scientific purpose for its object, the historical extremes of these natural differences are touched, and brought into the most vivid dramatic oppositions; so as to force from the lips of the by-standers the very inquiries and suggestions which are put down here; so as to wring from the broken hearts of men--tortured and broken on the wheel, which 'blind men' call fortune,--tortured and broken on the rack of an unlearned and barbaric human society,--or, from hearts that do not break with anything that such a world can do, the imperious direction of the new science. 'Then let Regan be anatomised, and _see_ what it is that breeds about her heart.' He has asked already, 'What is the cause of thunder?' But '_his_ philosopher' must not stop there. 'Is there any _cause_--is there any cause _in nature_ that makes these hard hearts?'-- It is _the stars_! The stars above us govern our conditions, Else one self mate and mate could not beget Such different issues.