![]() Ibn Gabirol expounds in his "Meḳor Ḥayyim" (iii., § 6) the theory of microcosm and macrocosm in its metaphysical sense. To them man is a microcosm owing to the correspondence of the four humors of which his body is made up to the four elements which constitute the universe: the blood corresponds to the air the phlegm, to water the black bile, to earth and the yellow bile, to fire. 1), and Shabbethai Donolo (commentary on Gen. 59), Saadia (commentary on the "Sefer Yeẓirah," iv. Less fantastic analogies between man and the universe are given by Israeli ("Sefer ha-Yesodot," ed. The hair represents the forest the bones, woods the lungs are the wind the loins, counselors the stomach, a mill the knees, horses when erect the man resembles the mountain, when recumbent the plain. xxxi.), where every part of man's body is compared with a certain object. It is found, though only in a haggadic form, in the Abot de-Rabbi Natan (ch. The doctrine of man's being a microcosm penetrated early into Jewish literature. From this assimilation of man to the universe resulted the prevailing belief in a mutual influence exercised by each on the other. The soul of man, which forms a part of the universal soul, is to his body what the universal soul is to the universe and the rational part of the soul performs in man the same functions as the universal intellect in the universe. From this idea, exaggerated and developed, proceeded the doctrine of microcosm and macrocosm, according to which man is a universe in little, and the universe a man in great. They considered the universe to be an animated being resembling a man and, like him, made up of a body and a soul. The idea of an analogy between man and the universe was expressed by the ancient Greek philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and especially by the Stoics, who developed it in connection with their doctrine of πνεῦμα. Philosophical term applied to man when contrasted with the universe, which, in this connection, is termed the macrocosm. ![]()
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