167. But good-will also goes in conjunction
with liberality, for liberality really starts from it, seeing that the
habit of giving comes after the desire to give. It exists,
however, also separate and distinct. For where liberality is
wanting, there good-will abides—the parent as it were of all in
common, uniting and binding friendships together. It is faithful
in counsel, joyful in times of prosperity, and in times of sorrow
sad. So it happens that any one trusts himself to the counsels of
a man of good-will rather than to those of a wise one, as David
did. For he, though he was the more farseeing, agreed to the
counsels of Jonathan, who was the younger. 1 Sam. [1
Kings] xx. 11 ff. Remove good-will out of the reach of
men, and it is as though one had withdrawn the sun from the
world. Cic. de
Amic. 13, § 47. For without it men would no longer
care to show the way to the stranger, to recall the
wanderer, to show hospitality (this
latter is no small virtue, for on this point Job praised himself, when
he said: “At my doors the stranger dwelt not, my gate was
open to every one who came”), Job xxxi. 32. nor even to
give water from the water that flows at their door, or to light
another’s candle at their own. Thus good-will exists in all
these, like a fount of waters refreshing the thirsty, and like a light,
which, shining forth to others, fails not them who have given a light
to others from their own light. Cic. de
Off. I. 16.