COSMOLOGY 51 



and all the substances that exist in the world, and he 

 constitutes a world of his own. In him wisdom may 

 become manifest, and the powers of his soul — good as 

 well as evil — may be developed to an extent little 

 dreamed of by our speculative philosophers. " In him are 

 contained all the Coelestia, Terrestria, Undosa, and Aeria " 

 — that is to say, all the forces and beings and forms that 

 may be found in the four elements out of which the 

 Universe is constructed. Man is the Microcosm containing 

 in himself the types of all the creatures that exist in the 

 world, " and it is a great truth, which you should seriously 

 consider, that there is nothing in heaven or upon the 

 earth which does not also exist in Man, and God who is 

 in heaven exists also in man, and the two are but One." 

 Each man in his capacity as a member of the great 

 organism of the world can be truly known only if looked 

 upon in his connection with universal Nature, and not as 

 a separate being isolated from Nature. Man is dependent 

 for his existence on Nature, and the state of Nature 

 depends on the condition of mankind as a whole. If we 

 know Nature we know Man, and if we know Man we 

 know Nature. " Whoever desires to be a practical 

 philosopher ought to be able to indicate heaven and hell 

 in the Microcosm, and to find everything in Man that 

 exists in heaven or upon the earth ; so that the corre- 

 sponding things of the one and the other appear to him 

 as one, separated by nothing else but the form. He must 

 be able to turn the exterior into the interior, but this is 

 an art which he can only acquire by experience and by 

 the light of Nature, which is shining before the eyes of 

 every man,^ but which is seen by few mortals." 



^ Thus a man in whom Supreme Wisdom or God has become folly 

 manifest is a god to the extent of his wisdom, and the power which he can 

 exercise will extend as far as the power manifested through him will reach. 

 A man will become an incarnation of good or evil according to the degree 

 in which the good or evil existing in the Universe becomes manifested 

 through him. But as no one can become a Christ by merely speculating 

 upon the doctrines of Christ without practising them, so nobody can come 



