Pity,[B] that sentiment which allies man to the divine, comes first.
From this proceeds love, and through these and by these only is
happiness possible. This was the gist of Beethoven's thought. He had
occupied himself much with sociological questions all his life, always
taking the part of the oppressed.
[B] The German rendering _Mitleid_ has a higher significance than its
English equivalent. Literally it means sharing the sorrow of the
afflicted one. It may be said in passing that this sentiment is the
central idea in Parsifal.
Schindler, who was almost constantly with Beethoven at this time, tells
of the difficulty the master experienced in finding a suitable way of
introducing the choral part. He finally hit upon the naive device of
adding words of his own in the form of a recitative, which first appears
in the sketch-book as, "Let us sing the immortal Schiller's Song,
'Freude schoener Goetterfunken.'" This was afterward changed to the much
better form as now appears, "O Freunde, nicht diese Toene! sondern lasst
uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere.
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