[88] “Mundus est universitas omnis, quae constat ex coelo et terra.... Secundum mysticum sensum, mundus competenter homo significatur, quia sicut ille ex quatuor concretus est elementis, ita et iste constat quatuor humoribus uno temperamento commistis. Unde et veteres hominem in communionem fabricae mundi constituerunt. Siquidem Graece mundus κόσμος, homo autem μικρόκοσμος, id est minor mundus, est appellatus.” _D. N. R._, 9, 2, and 3. _Cf._ 11, 3. The idea of the parallelism of man and the universe, when thus literally conceived, was a fruitful one. Man could be explained by the universe. And the process could be reversed and the universe also explained by man, since man may be observed in his entirety and his life history may be easily followed, while that of the universe may not. Isidore doubtless took this view, for he says: “The plan of the universe is to be inquired into according to man alone. For just as man passes to his end through definite ages, so too the universe is passing away during this prolonged time, since both man and the universe decay after they reach their growth.”[89] The division of the life of the universe, for example, into six definite ages, which he incorporated into his chronology, was given greater certainty and meaning from the similar division of man’s life into six ages. [89] _Sentent._, 1, 8, 1–2. The wide scope assigned by Isidore to the action of the four elements—which scope includes the immaterial as well as the material—is completely alien to the modern way of thinking; as is, also, the bringing of the universe, the year, and man, into so intimate and specific a connection. Still more difficult is it for us to grasp such an idea as that the ounce “is reckoned a lawful weight because the number of its scruples measures the hours of the day and night”;[90] or that “the Hebrews use twenty-two letters of the alphabet, following the [number of] books in the Old Testament”.[91] And the climax is reached when he expresses the notion that a man bursts into tears as soon as he casts himself down on his knees, because the knees and the eyes are close together in the womb.[92] [90] _Etym._, 16, 25, 19. [91] _Etym._, 1, 3, 4. _Cf._ 6, 1, 3. [92] _Etym._, 11, 1, 109. _Cf. Diff._, 2, 17, 56 and 71.