319. Regarded from the perspective of their uses, all constituents of the created universe resemble in an image the human being, and this attests to the fact that God is human. People in ancient times called the human being a microcosm, because he resembled the macrocosm, which is the universe in its entirety. People today, however, do not know why it is that the ancients called him that, for no more of the universe or macrocosm is apparent in him than the fact that he is nourished and his physical life sustained by its animal kingdom and plant kingdom, and the fact that he is kept in a state of continued life by its warmth, that he sees by means of its light, and that he hears and breathes in consequence of its atmospheres. Yet it is not these which cause the human being to be a microcosm, as the universe with all its constituents is the macrocosm. Rather the fact that people in ancient times called the human being a microcosm or little universe is something they drew from the knowledge of correspondences which people in most ancient times possessed, and from communication with angels in heaven. For angels in heaven know from the visible phenomena surrounding them that, regarded in terms of their uses, all constituents of the created universe resemble in an image the human being.