She replied: It has been said by wise men that man is a little world11    See On the Making of Man, c. viii. 5. in himself and contains all the elements which go to complete the universe. If this view is a true one (and so it seems), we perhaps shall need no other ally than it to establish the truth of our conception of the soul. And our conception of it is this; that it exists, with a rare and peculiar nature of its own, independently of the body with its gross texture. We get our exact knowledge of this outer world from the apprehension of our senses, and these sensational operations themselves lead us on to the understanding of the super-sensual world of fact and thought, and our eye thus becomes the interpreter of that almighty wisdom which is visible in the universe, and points in itself to the Being Who encompasses it. Just so, when we look to our inner world, we find no slight grounds there also, in the known, for conjecturing the unknown; and the unknown there also is that which, being the object of thought and not of sight, eludes the grasp of sense.

Μ. Ἡ δὲ, Λέγεται, φησὶ, παρὰ τῶν σοφῶν μικρός τις εἶναι κόσμος ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ταῦτα περιέχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰ στοιχεῖα, οἷς τὸ πᾶν συμπεπλήρωται. Εἰ δὲ ἀληθὴς οὗτος ὁ λόγος (ἔοικε δὲ), τάχα οὐκ ἂν ἑτέρας ἐδεήθημεν συμμαχίας εἰς τὸ βεβαιωθῆναι ἡμῖν ὃ περὶ ψυχῆς ὑπειλήφαμεν. Ὑπειλήφαμεν δὲ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὴν καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἐν ἐξηλλαγμένῃ τε καὶ ἰδιαζούσῃ φύσει, παρὰ τὴν σωματικὴν παχυμέρειαν. Ὡς γὰρ πάντα τὸν κόσμον διὰ τῆς αἰσθητικῆς ἀντιλήψεως ἐπιγινώσκοντες, δι' αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν ἡμῶν ἐνεργείας εἰς τὴν τοῦ ὑπὲρ αἴσθησιν πράγματος καὶ νοήματος ἔννοιαν ὁδηγούμεθα, καὶ γίνεται ἡμῖν ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ἑρμηνεὺς τῆς παντοδυνάμου σοφίας, τῆς τῷ παντὶ μὲν ἐνθεωρουμένης, τὸν δὲ κατ' αὐτὴν τοῦ παντὸς περιδεδραγμένον δι' ἑαυτῆς μηνυούσης,: οὕτω καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν βλέποντες κόσμον, οὐ μικρὰς ἔχομεν ἀφορμὰς πρὸς τὸ διὰ τῶν φαινομένων καὶ τοῦ κεκρυμμένου καταστοχάσασθαι. Κέκρυπται δὲ ἐκεῖνο, ὃ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ὂν νοητόν τε καὶ ἀειδὲς διαφεύγει τὴν αἰσθητικὴ, κατανόησιν.