The Genius was a kind of spirit which, as the ancients supposed, presided
over the actions of mankind, gave them their private councils, and
carefully watched over their most secret intentions. Some of the ancient
philosophers maintained, that every man had two of these, the one bad, the
other good. They had the power of changing themselves into whatever form
they pleased, and of assuming whatever shapes were most subservient to
their intentions. At the moment of death, they delivered up to judgment the
person with whose care they had been entrusted; and according to the
evidence he delivered, sentence was passed upon the body. The Genius of
Socrates is famous in history. That great philosopher asserted that the
Genius informed him when any of his friends were going to engage in some
unfortunate enterprise, and stopped him from the commission of all crimes
and impiety. The Genii, though at first reckoned only as the subordinate
ministers of the superior deities, received divine honour for a length of
time, and we find altars and statues erected to them.
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