Let us now resume our consideration of the Divine word, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ." How mean and how unworthy of the majesty of man are the fancies of some heathen writers, who magnify humanity, as they supposed, by their comparison of it to this world! for they say that man is a little world, composed of the same elements with the universe. Those who bestow on human nature such praise as this by a high-sounding name, forget that they are dignifying man with the attributes of the gnat and the mouse: for they too are composed of these four elements,-because assuredly about the animated nature of every existing thing we behold a part, greater or less, of those elements without which it is not natural that any sensitive being should exist. What great thing is there, then, in man's being accounted a representation and likeness of the world,-of the heaven that passes away, of the earth that changes, of all things that they contain, which pass away with the departure of that which compasses them round?

Ἀλλ' ἐπαναλάβωμεν πάλιν τὴν θείαν φωνὴν Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Ὡς μικρά τε καὶ ἀνάξια τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου μεγαλοφυΐας τῶν ἔξωθέν τινες ἐφαντάσθησαν͵ τῇ πρὸς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον συγκρίσει μεγαλύνοντες͵ ὡς ᾤοντο͵ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Φασὶ γὰρ μικρὸν εἶναι κόσμον τὸν ἄνθρωπον͵ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν τῷ παντὶ στοιχείων συνεστηκότα. Οἱ γὰρ τῷ κόμπῳ τοῦ ὀνόματος [180] τοιοῦτον ἔπαινον τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ χαριζόμενοι φύσει͵ λελήθασιν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς περὶ τὸν κώνωπα καὶ τὸν μῦν ἰδιώμασι σεμνοποιοῦντες τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Καὶ γὰρ κἀκείνοις ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων τούτων ἡ κρᾶσίς ἐστι͵ διότι πάντως ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων ἢ πλείων ἢ ἐλάττων τις μοῖρα περὶ τὸ ἔμψυχον θεωρεῖται͵ ὧν ἄνευ συστῆναί τι τῶν αἰσθήσεως μετεχόντων͵ φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει. Τί οὖν μέγα͵ κόσμου χαρακτῆρα καὶ ὁμοίωμα νομισθῆναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὐρανοῦ τοῦ περιερχομένου͵ γῆς τῆς ἀλλοιουμένης͵ πάντων τῶν ἐν τούτοις περικρατουμένων τῇ παρόδῳ τοῦ περιέχοντος συμπαρερχομένων;