Charity
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
Subjeciively, the sentiment or motive of benevolence and philanthropy; the disposition to relieve the distressed, Ob jectively, alms-giving; acts of benevolence; promotion of philanthropicand humanitarian purposes. ‘ The meaning of the word “charity,” in Its legal sense, is different from the signification which it ordinarily bears. In its legal sense, it includes not only gifts for the benefit of the poor, but endowments for the advancement of learning, or institutions for the encouragement of science and art, and, it is said, for any other useful and public purpose.
25 Ohio St. 243.
Charity, in its widest sense, denotes all the good affections men ought to bear towards each other; inarestricted and common sense, relief of the poor.
9 Ves. 399.
Charity, as used in the Massachusetts Sunday law, includes whatever proceeds from a sense of moral duty or a feeling of kindness and humanity, and is intended wholly for the purpose of the relief or comfort of another, and not for one’s own benefit or pleasure.
118 Mass, 195, 197.