Gretchen Graf Pahl

Pomona College

The essay “Of Genius,” from the Occasional Paper (1719), is reproduced from a copy in the New York Public Library.  The typescript of Aaron Hill’s preface is based on a copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library.  Both works are used with permission.

THE

OCCASIONAL PAPER.

VOL.  III.  NUMB.  X.

OF

GENIUS.

The Cartesian Categories are contain’d in these two
Verses,

Mens, mensura, quies, motus, positura, Figura, Sunt,
cum materia, cunctarum Exordia rerum.

The Spiritual Nature, Mens, is at the head of All.  It
     ought to be look’d on here, as a Transcendent Nature,
     quae vagatur per omnes Categorias.

Bayle’s Diction. on the Heathen Doctrine of
many Genij.  See CAINITES.

LONDON: 

Printed for EM.  MATTHEWS at the Bible
in Pater-Noster-Row; J. ROBERTS, in
Warwick-Lane; J. HARRISON, under the
Royal Exchange; and A. DODD, without
Temple-Bar.  MDCCXIX.

OF

GENIUS.

It is a Matter of common Observation, that there is a vast Variety in the Bent of Mens Minds.  Some have a Taste of one Way of Living, some of another; some have a Turn for one kind of Employment, others for what is quite different.  Whether this be from the Constitution of the Mind itself, as some Soils are more apt to produce some Plants and Herbs than others; or from the Laws of Union between the Body and Mind, as some Climates are more kindly to nurse particular Vegetables than others; or from the immediate Impulse of that Power which governs the World, is not so easy to determine.

We ascribe this to a difference of Genius amongst Men. Genius was a Deity worshipped by the Ancient Idolaters:  Sometimes as the God of Nature; sometimes as the God of a particular City or Country, or Fountain, or Wood, or the like; sometimes as the Guardian and Director of a single Person.

Exuitur, Geniumq; meum prostratus adorat. 
Propert. l. 4. El. 9 V. 43.

The Heathens had a Notion, that every Man upon his Birth was given up to the[A] Conduct of some invisible Being, who was to form his Mind, and govern and direct his Life.  This Being the Greeks called[B] [Greek:  Daimon or Daimonion]; the Latins, Genius.  Some of them suppos’d a[D] Pair of Genij were to attend every Man from his Birth; one Good, always putting him on the Practice of Virtue; the other Bad, prompting him to a vicious Behaviour; and according as their several Suggestions were most attended to, the Man became either Virtuous or Vicious in his Inclinations:  And from this Influence, which the Genius was suppos’d to have towards forming the Mind, the Word was by degrees made to stand for the Inclination itself.  Hence[E] indulgere Genio with the Latins signifies, to give Scope to Inclination, and more commonly to what is none of the best.  On the other Hand, [F]_Defraudare Genium_, signifies to deny Nature what it craves.