Hu*man"i*ty (?), n.; pl.
Humanities (#). [L. humanitas: cf. F.
humanité. See Human.] 1.
The quality of being human; the peculiar nature of man, by which
he is distinguished from other beings.
2. Mankind collectively; the human
race.
But hearing oftentimes
The still, and music humanity.
Wordsworth.
It is a debt we owe to humanity.
S. S. Smith.
3. The quality of being humane; the kind
feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially, a
disposition to relieve persons or animals in distress, and to treat
all creatures with kindness and tenderness. "The common offices
of humanity and friendship." Locke.
4. Mental cultivation; liberal education;
instruction in classical and polite literature.
Polished with humanity and the study of witty
science.
Holland.
5. pl. (With definite article) The
branches of polite or elegant learning; as language, rhetoric,
poetry, and the ancient classics; belles-letters.
&fist; The cultivation of the languages, literature, history, and
archæology of Greece and Rome, were very commonly called
literæ humaniores, or, in English, the
humanities, . . . by way of opposition to the literæ
divinæ, or divinity. G. P. Marsh.
