Liberality and dependence

Meaning

Liberality is effective generosity when the giver has direct command of the gift. Book III opens by comparing a prince who can himself reach his treasury with a great man whose intention depends on a servant: refusal or delay can defeat the latter’s giving. The point is the difference between possessing a source and relying on an intermediary, not an accusation against one identifiable servant. Later Nature’s promise that her follower need not beg, ne mandie, extends the ideal of sufficiency. That promise remains a personified assurance within the philosophical praise, not evidence that every practitioner actually escapes dependence or poverty.