GENIUS. This word, which conveys the most lofty enlogium that can be applied to intellectual excellence, meant originally the tutelary god or demon that was anciently supposed to preside over the birth and destinies of every individual human being. The peculiarities attending the character and career of each person came thus to be attributed to the higher or lower nature of their attendant genii. Thus arose one of the meanings now attached to the word—namely, the special bent, aptitude, or faculty, which any one possesses; as a genius for poetry, for, music, for mathematics, for statesmanship, and so forth. But this is not the chief or most prominent idea implied in the usual application of the term. If we consult usage, we shall find that genius is more frequently spoken of in connection with the poet, painter, architect, etc., than with the man of science or of practice; as if there was something in the regions of fine art that came more directly home to the susceptibilities of men, and evoked their expressions of admiration and praise. And such is really the ease. The artist's function is to touch immediately the chords of human pleasure; the men of practical life, the physician, lawyer, or engineer, have more to do with the deliverance from pains or from obstacles to pleasure, and however necessary their work may be, it is apt to he associated with the dark and gloomy side of our human life.
Undoubtedly, the most important meaning of the term. as pointing to a fundamental peculiarity in human minds differ, is that connecting it with originality, inven tion, or creative power, in any department of intellectual activity, artistic, scientific, or practical. Not poetic creativeness alone, but every effort of the inventive faculties of , man, by which new and superior combinations and devices are introduced into the world with a view to diminish the pains and -add to the pleasures of mankind, may "be properly designated "genius." Sufficient authority exists for this more extended use of the word, and we may justify it also by the consideration, that there is a common fact in all these different modes of intellectual superiority, while it is further possible that there may be a common foundation for them all in the constitution of the mind. We mark off the department of original power from other departments or modes of the intellect, still of positive value and of real importance—namely, the powers of acquiring and reproducing what has been already produced. Amassed learning, extensive acqui sitions in science, educated skill in the common arts or in fine art, may exist in a high degree, and may even confer distinction on the individual and serve useful purposes in life, without the accompaniment of originality. The praise implied in the name " talent " would be conceded to the best examples of acquired power, short of the apti tude for invention. This furnishes the most respectable contrast to genius, being itself something admirable and meritorious. A less esteemed contrast is furnished by the crowd of imitators that follow in the wake of any great and original mind, who aim, at producing similar effects without the inward spontaneity of the master, and with only the resource of copying his external form and peculiarities. There is a kind of ability
arnomnting to talent in this power of imitation, and literature always contains both good and indifferent examples of it. We are accustomed to speak of poetasters, playwrights, and copyists, among the writers of every literary period. The imitators of Homer in his own time have not survived; but he, as well as every other great genius, may be tracked in subsequent compositions. Spenser's school of poetry makes the largest sec tion of the published poems of the century succeeding him., Pope impressed his style upon last century; and Johnson's balanced prose continued to be reproduced long after his death.
The meaning of genius being thus understood as referring to original creativeness. or inventive power, it has been considered a problem of interest to trace it to its founda tions in the mind, with a view to determine whether it be a distinct faculty, or only a superior degree of other recognized powers. Johnson's definition is well known; "large general powers turned in a particular direction." This negatives the idea of a specific endowment, and would seem to imply that the man of genius could be anything that he pleased; that Aristotle might have been Pindar, and Homer have discover ed the forty-seventh of Euclid; an assumption in the last degree improbable, if not verging on absurdity. There is a class of minds noted for versatility, but they are only a select class. (Jasar was a general, an orator, and a writer, besides being a politician of mark. whether successful or unsuccessful. But, according to the most enlightened theories of the present day, it is usual to consider human beings as born with distinctive endow ments; and although is a common mental organization at the. basis. yet this is supposed to have a plurality Of distinct furictions, any one of which may rise in degree without the rest. Thus, intellect may be powerful on the whole, without involving a proportionate intensity of the feelings or the volition; the sensibility of the ear may be acute, and that of the eye only average. Now it would be fair to suppose that genius in one line—as, for example, painting—would result from the unusual augmentation. of the susceptibilities and powers specially exercised iu the art; the sense of color and of form, skill of hand, and a good recollection of those objects of nature and human life, that are the fitting material of a painter's compositions. So a poet should have a more than common car for verse, plenty of language, taste for the appropriate images of poetry, and so on. In this way we might, by a kind of analysis, determine which of the faculties common to all men should be exalted to a superior pitch, in order to fur nish a genius in each separate walk. This method has been pursued by the phrenologists and by other speculators, and is probably now the received mode of handling the sub ject. Examples may be seen in Bain on the Study of Character.