Not many words in the English language have suffered from Romantic puffery and what H. W. Fowler calls "slipshod exten- sion" to the degree that the word genius has. Prior to the 18th century it meant mostly a special talent or skill. But that mean- ing has for two centuries been buried in large measure by an- other which the word then took on: a person of greatness who achieves solely through the "genius" that is endowed in him by God or by nature.
Two influences brought...