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microcosm \MY-kruh-koz-uhm\, noun:
1. A little world. Hence, man or human nature as a supposed epitome of the world or universe (compare macrocosm).
2. A smaller, representative system having analogies to a larger system.
The monarch and his followers thought of the court as a microcosm of how the kingdom ought to be, the harmonious expression of a social order centred on the monarch.
-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination