Another decade was to pass before John Husbands would demonstrate a clear appreciation for the true simplicity of the Bible and praise its "penmen" in terms close to those employed to describe original genius.
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,
quæ 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.