Also 6 -fycence. [a. F. bénéficence, ad. L. beneficentia, f. benefic-us: perh. directly f. the L.]
1. Doing good, the manifestation of benevolence or kindly feeling, active kindness.
1531. Elyot, Gov., II. x. (1883), II. 112. Beneficence can by no menes be vicious and retaine still his name.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Mark v. 24 (R.). Like as the lodestone draweth vnto it yron, so dothe benefycence and well doing allure all men vnto her.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., iii. § 8. 42. By this meanes all beneficence … would be taken from among men.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 87. It is an institution of beneficence; and law itself is only beneficence acting by a rule.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, VIII. viii. What does intellectual power … stripped of beneficence, most resemble?
2. concr. A benefaction, a beneficent gift, deed or work.
1654. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 320. The market-place is … remarkable for old Hobson the pleasant carrier’s beneficence of a fountain.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. i. (1872), 87. Sterling now … zealously forwarded schools and beneficences.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 197. Distributed their beneficence in the shape of some handfuls of copper.
