This is the central teaching of
Jesus, of Buddha, of all who have the welfare of humanity at heart. It
was Beethoven's solution of the problem of existence. Through this magic
power, sorrows are transmuted into gifts of peace and happiness.
Beethoven loved his kind. Love for humanity, pity for its misfortunes,
hope for its final deliverance, largely occupied his mind. With scarcely
an exception Beethoven's works end happily. Among the sketches of the
last movement of the Mass in D, he makes the memorandum, "Staerke der
Gesinnungen des innern Friedens. Ueber alles ... Sieg." (Strengthen the
conviction of inward peace. Above all--Victory). The effect of the
Choral Finale is that of an outburst of joy at deliverance, a
celebration of victory. It is as if Beethoven, with prophetic eye, had
been able to pierce the future and foresee a golden age for humanity, an
age where altruism was to bring about cessation from strife, and where
happiness was to be general. Such happiness as is here celebrated in the
Ode to Joy, can indeed, only exist in the world through altruism.
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