《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 春 05的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

Sir, said Johnson, "all the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil, show it to be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful fortune."

“先生，”约翰逊说，“所有那些用来证明贫穷无害的论点明明白白地显示贫穷是一个极大的恶魔。因为从来不会有人费力说服你相信丰厚的资产可以让人过上幸福生活。”

He knew what he was talking of, that rugged old master of common sense. Poverty is of course a relative thing; the term has reference, above all, to one's standing as an intellectual being. If I am to believe the newspapers, there are title-bearing men and women in England who, had they an assured income of five-and-twenty shillings per week, would have no right to call themselves poor, for their intellectual needs are those of a stable-boy or scullery wench. Give me the same income and I can live, but I am poor indeed.

这个世事洞明而率直的老先生明白自己在说什么。贫穷当然是相对来说的，这个词首先和一个人的知识境界相关。如果我可以相信报纸的话，英格兰那些有头衔的绅士贵妇们，假使每周的固定收入只有二十五先令，也没有权利说自己贫穷，因为他们的知识需求和马童或洗碗女工无异。给我同样的收入，我可以维持生活，但我确实贫穷。

You tell me that money cannot buy the things most precious. Your commonplace proves that you have never known the lack of it. When I think of all the sorrow and the barrenness that has been wrought in my life by want of a few more pounds per annum than I was able to earn, I stand aghast at money's significance. What kindly joys have I lost, those simple forms of happiness to which every heart has claim, because of poverty! Meetings with those I loved made impossible year after year; sadness, misunderstanding, nay, cruel alienation, arising from inability to do the things I wished, and which I might have done had a little money helped me; endless instances of homely pleasure and contentment curtailed or forbidden by narrow means. I have lost friends merely through the constraints of my position; friends I might have made have remained strangers to me; solitude of the bitter kind, the solitude which is enforced at times when mind or heart longs for companionship, often cursed my life solely because I was poor. I think it would scarce be an exaggeration to say that there is no moral good which has not to be paid for in coin of the realm.

你告诉我金钱买不到最珍贵的东西，这种陈词滥调证明了你从来不知道缺钱的滋味。当我想到因为每年少挣几英磅而导致生活变得哀痛不堪、毫无生气，我便惊骇于钱的重大意义。因为贫穷，许多温情的快乐—每颗心原本都有份的简单的快乐—都与我失之交臂。年复一年，不能与亲戚至爱重逢；那些因为不能随心所欲而产生的悲伤、误解、拒绝和残酷的疏远，如果有一点钱的帮助，本来都可以避免；因为捉襟见肘，那么多家常的乐趣都被削减或被剥夺。因为我的处境所限，我失去了一些朋友；一些本可以成为朋友的人现在还是陌生人；那种痛苦的孤独感，心灵渴望陪伴时加倍的孤独感，常常折磨着我，就因为我的贫穷。我想这样说不算夸张：没有金钱的代价便不会有道德的闪光。

Poverty, said Johnson again, "is so great an evil, and pregnant with so much temptation, so much misery, that I cannot but earnestly enjoin you to avoid it."

约翰逊又说：“贫穷真是一个大恶魔，孕育着许多诱惑，许多痛苦，我只能郑重地告诫你千万避开它。”

For my own part, I needed no injunction to that effort of avoidance. Many a London garret knows how I struggled with the unwelcomechamber-fellow. I marvel she did not abide with me to the end; it is a sort of inconsequence in Nature, and sometimes makes me vaguely uneasy through nights of broken sleep.

对我来说，我根本不需要他那逃避贫穷的告诫。伦敦的许多阁楼见证过我是如何与这位讨厌的管家争吵的。我感到惊讶的是，她居然没有一直和我闹下去。这种不符合自然规律的情况，有时让我在梦醒失眠的夜晚还模糊地感到不安。