[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
† 1. Beneficent character, beneficence. Obs.
1528. Roy, Sat. (Arb.), 35. They reputed vs for haulfe goddes and more, thorowe the masses beneficialnes.
c. 1568. Coverdale, Spir. Perle, xxiv. 240. If God of his naturall loue, beneficialnesse and free liberalitie geueth here … health, strength, richesse.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 115. The goodness and beneficialness of the Divine Nature.
2. Beneficial quality, usefulness, profitableness.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xi. 157. Shouldest thou not rather commend the beneficialnesse thereof [the Sea]?
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., 5. They do not commend their knowledge to us upon the account of their usefulness and beneficialness.
1739. Burkitt, On N. T., Matt. iv. 24, note. A life of universal serviceableness and beneficialness to Mankind.
1862. Ruskin, Unto this Last, 46. The beneficialness of the inequality depends, first, on the methods by which it is accomplished.
