a good or evil spirit or demon, whom the ancients supposed to watch over every person, to direct his birth, accompany him in life, and be his guard till death. Amongst the Romans the name genius was, according to Festus, given to the god who had the power of doing all things, deum qui vim obtineret rerum omnium gerendarum; but Vossius (De Idol.) prefers reading genendarum, and Censorinus frequently uses gerere for gignere. Accordingly St Augustin (De Civitate Dei) relates, after Varro, that the genius was a god who had the power of generating all things, and presided over them when produced. Festus adds that Auffustius spake of the genius as the son of god, and the father of men, who gave them life. Others, however, represented the genius as the peculiar or tutelary god of each place; and it is certain that the last is the most usual meaning of the word. The ancients had their genii of nations, of cities, of provinces, and the like. Nothing is more common than the inscription on medals of Genius Populi Rom., the genius of the Roman people; or Genio Pop. Rom., to the genius of the Roman people. In this sense genius and lar were the same thing; as, in effect, Censorinus and Apullius affirm they were.

in literature and the fine arts, 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.