The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

can be made most beautiful and most
becoming rather than for how much it can be produced and how it can
be produced most cheaply. It is necessary, then, that the
magnificent man be also liberal. For the liberal man also will
spend what he ought and as he ought; and it is in these matters
that the greatness implied in the name of the magnificent man-his
bigness, as it were-is manifested, since liberality is concerned
with these matters; and at an equal expense he will produce a more
magnificent work of art. For a possession and a work of art have
not the same excellence. The most valuable possession is that which
is worth most, e.g. gold, but the most valuable work of art is that
which is great and beautiful (for the contemplation of such a work
inspires admiration, and so does magnificence); and a work has an
excellence-viz. magnificence-which involves magnitude. Magnificence
is an attribute of expenditures of the kind which we call
honourable, e.g. those connected with the gods-votive offerings,
buildings, and sacrifices-and similarly with any form of religious
worship, and all those that are proper objects of public-spirited
ambition, as when people think they ought to equip a chorus or a
trireme, or entertain the city, in a brilliant way. But in all
cases, as has been said, we have regard to the agent as well and
ask who he is and what means he has; for the expenditure should be
worthy of his means, and suit not only the result but also the
producer. Hence a poor man cannot be magnificent, since he has not
the means with which to spend large sums fittingly; and he who
tries is a fool, since he spends beyond what can be expected of him
and what is proper, but it is right expenditure that is virtuous.
But great expenditure is becoming to those who have suitable means
to start with, acquired by their own efforts or from ancestors or
connexions, and to people of high birth or reputation, and so on;
for all these things bring with them greatness and prestige.
Primarily, then, the magnificent man is of this sort, and
magnificence is shown in expenditures of this sort, as has been
said; for these are the greatest and most honourable. Of private
occasions of expenditure the most suitable are those that take
place once for all, e.g. a wedding or anything of the kind, or
anything that interests the whole city or the people of position in
it, and also the receiving of foreign guests and the sending of
them on their way, and gifts and counter-gifts; for the magnificent
man spends not on himself but on public objects, and gifts bear
some resemblance to votive offerings. A magnificent man will also
furnish his house suitably to his wealth (for even a house is a
sort of public ornament), and will spend by preference on those
works that are lasting (for these are the most beautiful), and on
every class of things he will spend what is becoming; for the same
things are not suitable for gods and for men, nor in a temple and
in a tomb. And since each expenditure may be great of its kind, and
what is most magnificent absolutely is great expenditure on a great
object, but what is magnificent here is what is great in these
circumstances, and greatness in the work differs from greatness in
the expense (for the most beautiful ball or bottle is magnificent
as a gift to a child, but the price of it is small and
mean),-therefore it is characteristic of the magnificent man,
whatever kind of result he is producing, to produce it
magnificently (for such a result is not easily surpassed) and to
make it worthy of the expenditure.
    Such, then, is the magnificent man; the man who goes to excess
and is vulgar exceeds, as has been said, by spending beyond what is
right. For on small objects of expenditure he spends much and
displays a tasteless showiness; e.g. he gives a club dinner on the
scale of a wedding banquet, and when he provides the chorus for a
comedy he brings them on to the stage in purple, as they do at
Megara. And all such things he will do not for honour’s sake but to
show off his wealth, and because he thinks he is admired for these
things, and where he ought to spend much he spends little and where
little, much. The niggardly man on the other hand will fall short
in everything, and after spending the greatest sums will spoil the
beauty of the result for a trifle, and whatever he is doing he will
hesitate and consider how he may spend least, and lament even that,
and think he is doing everything on a bigger scale than