ABSTRACT
According to the ancient meaning of the word, liberality is the embodiment of the exceptional qualities of the free-born, whose noble character is revealed in contact with friends, in business activities, and in political action. Liberalitas can be traced back to eleutheria in Aristotle (Nic. Eth. II.7.4 and Eud. Eth. III.3.2); those virtues which, derived from freedom, like other Aristotelian virtues, establish a balance: generosity is a mid-point between waste on the one hand, and tight-fistedness on the other. Cicero, of whom Hildebrand thought a great deal, adds to this that liberalitas must be just, and it is unacceptable for it to appear as vanity (De off. I.14). Cicero characteristically added that an occasional, spontaneous gift is not only ‘liberal’ but profitable as well (because gifts may also be expected in return); but it is also necessary to be economical, without appearing to be mean.2
