Chapter 24 Chapter Ten The Death of Belshazzar

Jolyon crossed the Channel from Carlisle overnight, and reached Robin Hill on Sunday morning.He didn't inform his family beforehand, so he walked all the way back from the station and entered his territory through the side gate of the grove.When he came to the wooden bench hewn from the trunk of an old tree, he spread his coat on it and sat down. "My waist is so sore!" he thought: "At my age, this is how love ends!" Suddenly, Irene seemed to be by his side, just like the day when they were traveling together in Fontaine-Beroulin, Sitting on a tree as close to him as at lunch.So close as hell!The faint sunlight penetrating into the woods evaporated the smell of fallen leaves into his nostrils. "It's a good thing it's not spring," he thought.Add the scent of the leaves, the song of the birds and the bloom of the flowers in spring, and it's overwhelming! "I hope that when spring comes I'll be able to take it lightly, even if it's such a fool," he thought, picking up his coat and walking towards the field; past the little pond, and slowly up the hill.When he was about to reach the top of the mountain, a rough bark greeted him.In the meadow just above the fern-bed, he could see his old dog Belshazzar.The dog's dim old eyes regarded its owner as a stranger, and it was warning the outside world to beware of it.Jolyon whistled as usual.Although he was more than a hundred yards away, he could still see the fat yellow and white figure.The old dog got up, with one tail clinging to its back, and its body trembled weakly and excitedly; it walked forward crookedly, its feet picked up slowly, and finally disappeared by the side of the fern-tail grass garden .Jolyon expected to meet the old dog at the chai gate, but he didn't see it there; Jolyon was a little flustered, and turned into the ferntail garden.The fat body of the old dog was lying there, looking up with dull eyes.

"What's the matter, old chap?" cried Jolyon.Belshazzar's shaggy, curving tail moved a little; his cloudy eyes seemed to say, "I can't stand up, master, but I'm glad to see you." Jolyon knelt down; his eyes were so dazzled that he could hardly see that the heaving of the dog's flanks was slowly stopping.He held the dog's head up a little—it was heavy. "What's the matter, good man? Are you hurt?" The dog's tail quivered again; the business in the eyes disappeared.Jolyon ran his hands over the whole stiff warm body.I was out of breath—the little heart in that fat body just stopped moving because of the joy of hearing the master's return.When the snout with a few pale manes touched Jolyon's lips, it had already cooled down a bit.He knelt for several minutes, holding the stiff dog's head in his hands.When he carried the dog uphill to the field, he felt heavy in his hand; the field was full of fallen leaves, and he covered the dog with leaves; fortunately, there was no wind, and these leaves would cover him Curious eyes until that afternoon. "I'll bury it myself," he thought.Eighteen years had passed since he had walked into his own house in St. John's Wood with a puppy in his pocket.It's strange that this old thing will die at this time!Is it a sign?When he got to the garden gate he looked back at the shaggy pile again, and walked slowly towards the big house with a lump in his throat.

Joan was at home; she heard the news of Jory's enlistment, and came down in a hurry.Jory's patriotism overwhelmed Joan's sympathies for the Boers.Jolyon came into the house and told everyone the news of Belshazzar's death, and the air in the house became strange and dreary.The news of Belshazzar's death had a unifying effect.As soon as the dog died - a thread from the past was suddenly interrupted.The dog had come through a hard time with him; the two little ones didn't remember at all; in Joan's eyes it represented only his grandfather's old age; in Jolyon's eyes he represented himself returning to his father The life of family misery and artistic struggle before the embrace of love and the kingdom of wealth!Now it is dead!

That afternoon Jolyon and Jory went out into the field with pickaxes and shovels.The two chose a place near the brown and yellow pile, so as not to move the dog too far; carefully shoveled a layer of grass on the ground, and the two dug up the soil.For ten minutes, both father and son dug in silence, and then they stopped digging. "Son," said Jolyon, "you feel responsible, don't you?" "Well," replied Jory, "of course not at all." This sentence just expressed Jolyon's own mood without more or less. "I admire you very much, boy, and I dare say I'm not likely to do it at your age—I'm still a Forsyte, which is probably why. But I think this typical character will change from generation to generation. It's not obvious. If you had a son, he might be quite an altruist; who knows?"

"Then he won't be like me at all, father; I'm terribly selfish." "No, boy, of course you're not selfish." Jory shook his head, and they dug again. "How queer is the life of a dog," said Jolyon suddenly; "the only one among quadrupeds who has a little root of altruism, and a sense of God!" Jory looked at his father. "Do you believe in God, father? I never knew." Faced with such a profound question, and the person who asked it could not answer it casually, Jolyon stood there for a while, feeling his back was sore. "What do you mean by God?" he said; "there are two irreconcilable conceptions of God. One is the unknowable principle of creation—that is what man believes. And the other is the sum total of man's altruism— —People naturally believe it too.”

"I see. That takes Christ out of the way, doesn't it?" How open Jolyon's eyes are, Christ, the bridge between these two concepts!It just came out of the boy's mouth. Here, the orthodox teachings are finally explained scientifically!The sublime psalms of Christ's life express man's attempt to connect these two irreconcilable concepts of God.And since the sum of human altruism is as much a part of that unknowable creative principle as nature, as anything else in the universe, perhaps a worse bridge would have been chosen in the first place!It's funny - people spend most of their lives never being able to see that!

"What do you think, boy?" he said. Jory frowned. "Of course, when I was in first grade, we talked about this kind of problem a lot; but in second grade, we didn't pay attention to it; I don't know why-it's very interesting." Jolyon remembered that he had talked about this issue a lot in his first year at Cambridge, and stopped talking about it in his second year. "I suppose," said Jory, "that you mean Belshazzar sensed a second kind of God." "By the way, otherwise, it wouldn't have had its heart stopped suddenly for something other than itself."

"But isn't it really just a selfish emotion?" Jolyon shook his head. "No, the dog, unlike the perfect Forsyte, loves something besides himself." Jory smiled. "Well, I think I'm quite a Forsyte," said he. "You know, I enlisted only to take Far Dardi's army." "But why?" "We don't get along," said Jory briefly. "Ah!" Jolyon snorted.It turns out that the hatred has reached the third generation-this kind of modern hatred that does not reveal itself! "Shall I tell the boy about the past?" he thought. "But what's the talk--if he's going to give up halfway?"

Jory was also thinking: "Let Holly tell you about that guy. If she doesn't tell you, it means she doesn't want you to know. If I tell you, it's nonsense. Anyway, I have blocked the matter, or Don't be silly!" So the two dug in silence again, until Jolyon said: "Hey, kid, I think it's big enough." The two held on to the shovel and looked at the pit below. The evening wind had already blown a few fallen leaves into it. Jolyon said suddenly, "I can't stand carrying me." "Let me do it, father. It never had any affection for me."

Jolyon shook his head. "Let's lift it in gently, even with the leaves. I don't want to see it like that again. I'll lift its head, come!" The two men lifted the old dog's body with extreme care; the fallen leaves were blown by the evening wind, and the faded yellow and white fur colors were showing here and there.They placed the heavy, cold, ignorant body in the grave, and Joly spread some leaves on top of it, and Jolyon, fearing to show his sentimentality in front of his son, hastily shoveled dirt over the motionless figure. .The past is thus buried!If there is any happy future to look forward to, so be it!This is like burying your own life alive.The two carefully spread the piece of grass mud on the smooth small grave, and went back to the big house together arm in arm, both a little grateful that the other didn't make them sad.