Generosity

Generosity

The disposition which prompts us to bestow favours which are not the purchase of any particular merit. It is different from humanity. Humanity is an exquisite feeling we possess in relation to others, so as to grieve for their sufferings, resent their injuries, or to rejoice at their prosperity; and as it arises from sympathy, it requires no great self-denial, or self-command; but generosity is that by which we are led to prefer some other person to ourselves, and to sacrifice any interest of our own to the interest of another.