On Genius. 375 
Tt is seldom of much service in the in- 
vestigation of metaphysical ideas, to apply 
to the etymology of the abstract terms by 
which they are expressed; nor do 1 now 
recur to the origin of the word Genius so 
much for the sake of shewing what it means,— 
as in order to procure something like a fixed © 
point, on which to hang our subsequent enqui- 
ries—and also to trace rapidly the process, 
through which it seems to have passed into 
its present signification. Genius—is a Latin 
word; and, by its derivation, should mean 
what is born with us.(a) Hence it usually 
denotes the tutelary spirit, who was supposed 
by the ancients to preside over the birth and 
govern the life of every one. By a refine- 
ment of abstraction, they separated, as it 
were, the individual from his moral and in- 
tellectual character; which they invested 
with an independent existence, and supposed 
to control his destiny. ‘T’o the elegant fancy 
of the Greeks, even the objects of inanimate 
nature and particelar spots, which were 
marked by a certain solemnity of aspect, 
seemed under the influence of some protecting 
deity; and we find the herbes of antiquity 
(a) Est autem Genius naturalis vel loci, vel rei, vel hominis 
cujusque Dens, quasi nobiscum genitus. 
Schulting. in Quinctil. pro caco Declam. I. p. 32. edit. Burm. 
