a good or evil spirit, or daemon, whom the ancients supposed set over each person, to direct his birth, accompany him in life, and be his guard. See Daemon.

The rank and office of the genii were inferior to those of the lares; for the latter were the tutelar gods of a family, whereas the genii had the care or government only of single persons, or places.

in matters of literature, &c., a natural talent or disposition to do one thing more than another; or the aptitude a man has received from nature to perform well and easily that which others can do but indifferently and with a great deal of pains.

To know the bent of nature is the most important concern. Men come into the world with a genius determined not only to a certain art, but to certain parts of that art, in which only they are capable of success. If they quit their sphere, they fall even below mediocrity in their profession. Art and industry add much to natural endowments, but cannot supply them where they are wanting. Every thing depends on genius. A painter often pleases without observing rules, whilst another displeases though he observes them, because he has not the happiness of being born with a genius for painting.