《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 - 夏 22的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

For a nation of this temper, the movement towards democracy is fraught with peculiar dangers. Profoundly aristocratic in his sympathies, the Englishman has always seen in the patrician class not merely a social, but a moral, superiority; the man of blue blood was to him a living representative of those potencies and virtues which made his ideal of the worthy life. Very significant is the cordial alliance from old time between nobles and people; free, proud homage on one side answering to gallant championship on the other; both classes working together in the cause of liberty. However great the sacrifices of the common folk for the maintenance of aristocratic power and splendour, they were gladly made; this was the Englishman's religion, his inborn pietas; in the depths of the dullest soul moved a perception of the ethic meaning attached to lordship. Your Lord was the privileged being endowed by descent with generous instincts, and possessed of means to show them forth in act. A poor noble was a contradiction in terms; if such a person existed, he could only be spoken of with wondering sadness, as though he were the victim of some freak of nature. The Lord was Honourable, Right Honourable; his acts, his words virtually constituted the code of honour whereby the nation lived.

对于这种性情的国家来说，通往民主的道路上潜藏着各种特别的危险。英国人具有很深厚的贵族情结，在他们眼里，贵族阶层不仅在社会地位上，也在道德上高人一等；拥有高贵血统的人士是能力和美德活生生的代表，而获得能力和美德则是他有价值的人生理想。自古以来贵族和平民之间和谐的关系具有重要意义：一方自由骄傲地致敬，另一方慷慨地提供支持；两个阶层为自由的事业共同奋斗。不管平民为贵族的权力和荣耀作出了多少牺牲，他们都是心甘情愿的，这就是英国人的宗教，这就是他内心的虔诚。在他们最单调的灵魂深处，涌动着一种与贵族相关的伦理意识。贵族的特权是生来就有的，并天赋慷慨的本能，并有财力才能付诸行动。贫穷的贵族是一个自相矛盾的词；如果存在这种人，人们谈起他时，不免要带着疑惑和悲伤的口吻，似乎他是自然无常的受害者。贵族是光荣的，本身就是荣誉；他的行为，他的言语，构成了国民遵守的光荣的行为准则。

In a new world, beyond the ocean, there grew up a new race, a scion of England, which shaped its life without regard to the principle of hereditary lordship; and in course of time this triumphant Republic began to shake the ideals of the Motherland. Its civilization, spite of superficial resemblances, is not English; let him who will think it superior; all one cares to say is that it has already shown in a broad picture the natural tendencies of English blood when emancipated from the old cult. Easy to understand that some there are who see nothing but evil in the influence of that vast commonwealth. If it has done us good, assuredly the fact is not yet demonstrable. In old England, democracy is a thing so alien to our traditions and rooted sentiment that the line of its progress seems hitherto a mere track of ruin. In the very word is something from which we shrink; it seems to signify nothing less than a national apostasy, a denial of the faith in which we won our glory. The democratic Englishman is, by the laws of his own nature, in parlous case; he has lost the ideal by which he guided his rude, prodigal, domineering instincts; in place of the Right Honourable, born to noble things, he has set up the mere Plebs, born, more likely than not, for all manner of baseness. And, amid all his show of loud self-confidence, the man is haunted with misgiving.

在一个新世界，在大洋彼岸，一个新民族成长起来，那是英格兰的子孙，他们的生活不遵守世代相传的贵族传统；时间流逝，这个胜利的共和国开始动摇祖国的理想。它的文明，虽然有表面的相似，却不是英国的，那些认为它更高级的人们,由他们去吧。我们要说的只有一句，这种文明以大广角镜显示了英国人从古老贵族崇拜中解放后的自然发展倾向。有些人在这个大联邦共和国的影响中看到的只有罪恶，这容易理解。就算它确实对我们有好处，也肯定还没有得到证实。在古老的英格兰，民主与我们的传统和根深蒂固的民族情感是那么格格不入，它的发展道路迄今似乎只有一处处失败的遗迹。这个词所蕴含的就是我们本能躲避的东西，它代表的似乎比一种民族的变节更坏，一种对我们藉以赢得荣耀的信仰的否决。民主的英国人依本性来讲是处于危险境地的，他丧失了那种用以引导他粗野无度和跋扈本能的理想；为取代生来要从事高尚事业的荣耀贵族阶级，他建立了很可能生来就是做各种卑下事情的无产阶级。在他自信的华丽外表下，其实常常受着疑惧的困扰。

The task before us is no light one. Can we, whilst losing the class, retain the idea it embodied? Can we English, ever so subject to the material, liberate ourselves from that old association, yet guard its meaning in the sphere of spiritual life? Can we, with eyes which have ceased to look reverently on worn-out symbols, learn to select from among the grey-coated multitude, and place in reverence even higher him who "holds his patent of nobility straight from Almighty God"? Upon that depends the future of England. In days gone by, our very Snob bore testimony after his fashion to our scorn of meanness; he at all events imagined himself to be imitating those who were incapable of a sordid transaction, of a plebeian compliance. But the Snob, one notes, is in the way of degeneracy; he has new exemplars; he speaks a ruder language. Him, be sure, in one form or another, we shall have always with us, and to observe his habits is to note the tenor of the time. If he has at the back of his dim mind no living ideal which lends his foolishness a generous significance, then indeed—videant consules18.

摆在我们面前的任务并不轻松。在阶级丧失的情况下我们还能够维持它蕴含的理想吗？我们这些利欲熏心的英国人能够将自己从旧日对财富与荣誉的联想中解放出来，同时在精神领域保住财富的本义吗？当我们已不再用尊崇的眼神看着破旧的荣誉徽章时，我们还能从灰扑扑的民众中挑选出那些“万能上帝赋予高贵品质”的人，并将他置于尊崇的地位吗？英格兰的未来系于此。在过去，我们民族特有的“势利者”，用自己的方式表明了对我们对吝啬的蔑视，他们总是想象自己的行为是模仿了那些不屑卑鄙交易也不带有贱民卑谦的贵族。但是人们注意到“势利者”也正走向退化，他们有了新的榜样，他的语言变得粗野。可以肯定的是，他会以这样那样的方式永远活在我们之中，观察他的习惯便可以看出时代的趋势。如果在他混沌的头脑中没有一个活生生的理想，能够赋予他的愚蠢言行以慷慨的意义，那么真是要—“请执政官留意了”。