Goodness, n.
Etymology: [AS. g.]
The quality of being good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence; as, the goodness of timber, of a soil, of food; goodness of character, of disposition, of conduct, etc.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for goodness; he lists it under virtue.
Where he writes about it:
Virtue (L. virtus, primarily manly strength or courage, from vir, a man, a hero) is, in its full sense, goodness that is victorious through trial, perhaps through temptation and conflict. — from virtue
Goodness, the being morally good, may be much less than virtue, as lacking the strength that comes from trial and conflict, or it may be very much more than virtue, as rising sublimely above the possibility of temptation and conflict--the infantile as contrasted with the divine goodness. — from virtue
Honesty and probity are used especially of one's relations to his fellow men, probity being to honesty much what virtue in some respects is to goodness; probity is honesty tried and proved, especially in those things that are beyond the reach of legal requirement; above the commercial sense, honesty may be applied to the highest truthfulness of the soul to and with itself and its Maker. — from virtue