Man was called a microcosm by the ancients from the fact that he represents the macrocosm which is the universe in its whole complex. But today it is not known why man was so called by the ancients, for no more of the universe or macrocosm appears in him than that he derives nourishment and bodily life from its animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that he is maintained in a living condition by its heat, sees by its light, and hears and breathes by means of its atmosphere. Yet these things do not make man a microcosm, as the universe with all things in it is a macrocosm. But the ancients called man a microcosm, or little universe, and this they derived from the knowledge of correspondences in which the most ancient people were, and from communication with the angels of heaven. For angels of heaven know from the things which they see about them that all the things of the universe, regarded as to uses, represent man in an image.