《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 - 秋 08的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!
I have been reading Sainte-Beuve's16 Port-Royal, a book I have often thought of reading, but its length, and my slight interest in that period, always held me aloof. Happily, chance and mood came together, and I am richer by a bit of knowledge well worth acquiring. It is the kind of book which, one may reasonably say, tends to edification. One is better for having lived a while with "Messieurs de Port-Royal”; the best of them were, surely, not far from the Kingdom of Heaven.
我近来在读圣伯夫的《波尔-罗亚尔》，其实早就想读这本书了，但是它的长度让人望而生畏，加上我对那段历史缺乏兴趣，所以一直对它敬而远之。令人开心的是，机会和心情终于凑在了一起，而我获得了一点有价值的知识，觉得学问更深了。我有足够理由说这是一本给人教育启迪的书。与“波尔-罗亚尔修道院的先生们”相处一段时间，会让人受益良多，他们中最好的实在离天国不远。
Theirs is not, indeed, the Christianity of the first age; we are among theologians, and the shadow of dogma has dimmed those divine hues of the early morning, yet ever and anon there comes a cool, sweet air, which seems not to have blown across man's common world, which bears no taint of mortality.
他们信仰的确实已不是初世纪的基督教，我们处在神学者之中，教条的阴影黯淡了督教那种清晨的神圣光彩，然而不时吹来的一阵凉爽甜美的风，似乎并非来自寻常人间，因为它不带一丝死亡的气息。
A gallery of impressive and touching portraits. The great-souled M. de Saint-Cyran17, with his vision of Christ restored; M. Le Maitre, who, at the summit of a brilliant career, turned from the world to meditation and penitence; Pascal, with his genius and his triumphs, his conflicts of soul and fleshly martyrdom; Lancelot, the good Lancelot, ideal schoolmaster, who wrote grammar and edited classical books; the vigorous Arnauld, doctoral rather than saintly, but long-suffering for the faith that was in him; and all the smaller names—Walon de Beaupuis, Nicole, Hamon—spirits of exquisite humility and sweetness—a perfume rises from the page as one reads about them. But best of all I like M. de Tillemont; I could have wished for myself even such a life as his; wrapped in silence and calm, a life of gentle devotion and zealous study. From the age of fourteen, he said, his intellect had occupied itself with but one subject, that of ecclesiastical history. Rising at four o'clock, he read and wrote until half-past nine in the evening, interrupting his work only to say the Offices of the Church, and for a couple of hours'breathing at mid-day. Few were his absences. When he had to make a journey, he set forth on foot, staff in hand, and lightened the way by singing to himself a psalm or canticle. This man of profound erudition had as pure and simple a heart as ever dwelt in mortal. He loved to stop by the road and talk with children, and knew how to hold their attention whilst teaching them a lesson. Seeing boy or girl in charge of a cow, he would ask: "How is it that you, a little child, are able to control that animal, so much bigger and stronger?" And he would show the reason, speaking of the human soul. All this about Tillemont is new to me; well as I knew his name (from the pages of Gibbon), I thought of him merely as the laborious and accurate compiler of historical materials. Admirable as was his work, the spirit in which he performed it is the thing to dwell upon; he studied for study's sake, and with no aim but truth; to him it was a matter of indifference whether his learning ever became known among men, and at any moment he would have given the fruits of his labour to any one capable of making use of them.
这本书就像一个美术馆，里面陈列着一幅幅让人印象深刻、感人至深的肖像画。心灵伟大的圣昔朗先生，恢复了重见耶稣基督的想象力；勒迈特先生，在辉煌事业的巅峰时刻，遁世绝俗，在沉思和赎罪中度过余生；帕斯卡尔，才华过人，成就斐然，却在灵魂和肉体的殉道之间挣扎；朗瑟洛，善良的朗瑟洛，他著有法语语法书，还编辑典籍，是一名完美的老师；精力充沛的阿尔诺，与其说是圣徒，不如说是饱学之士，他为了心中的信仰长期遭受煎熬；还有那些不太有名的人物——瓦隆·德博皮、妮科尔、哈莫——这些心思细腻、天性恭谦纯良的人们——读到这些人的时候，一缕芬芳便从书页上散发出来。但是我最喜欢的是蒂耶芒先生，我希望自己能拥有他那样的生活，在沉默和安宁的怀抱中，过着诚心奉教和潜心向学的生活。他说，从十四岁起，他的智慧便专注于一个主题，即教会历史的研究。他凌晨四点钟起床，一直读写到晚上九点半，只有在做祷告和中午外出透气的几小时，才中断工作。他很少出门不在家。如果必须外出，他会步行，手里拿一根杖，一路上唱赞美诗或圣歌来减轻劳顿。这个学识精深的人，有着世间最纯净和质朴的心灵。他喜欢在路上停下和孩子们谈话，教授知识时，知道怎样抓住他们的注意力。看到男孩或女孩在放牛，他会问道：“你这样一个小孩子，为什么能够控制这头身体和力气都比你大得多的牲畜呢？”然后，他会谈起人类的灵魂，将原因揭示出来。所有这些关于蒂耶蒙的故事，我都是第一次听到。我虽然熟知他的名字（从吉本的作品中），却一直只将他视为一个勤勉严谨的历史资料编纂者。他的作品让人仰慕，而他的治学精神更值得人们称道；他为研究而研究，目标只有一个，就是真理；他不在乎自己的学识是否会名誉四海，随时准备将自己的学术成果交给任何有能力利用它们的人。
Think of the world in which the Jansenists18 were living; the world of the Fronde19, of Richelieu20 and Mazarin21, of his refulgent Majesty Louis XIV. Contrast Port-Royal with Versailles, and—whatever one's judgment of their religious and ecclesiastical aims—one must needs say that these men lived with dignity. The Great Monarch is, in comparison, a poor, sordid creature. One thinks of Moliere22 refused burial—the king's contemptuous indifference for one who could do no more to amuse him being a true measure of the royal greatness. Face to face with even the least of these grave and pious men, how paltry and unclean are all those courtly figures; not THERE was dignity, in the palace chambers and the stately gardens, but in the poor rooms where the solitaries of Port-Royal prayed and studied and taught. Whether or not the ideal for mankind, their life was worthy of man. And what is rarer than a life to which that praise can be given?
想想詹森教派生活的那个世界，那是投石党、黎塞留和马萨林，还有伟大的路易十四陛下生活的世界。将波尔-罗亚尔和凡尔赛相比照——不管我们对前者的宗教和教会宗旨的评价如何——我们都必须承认，这些人是带着尊严活着的。相形之下，伟大的君主不过是一个可怜卑下的人物。人们会想起莫里哀的葬礼受阻挠的事——国王对一个再也无法取悦他的人的那份蔑视和漠然，是衡量君主之伟大的真正尺度。即使与这些庄重虔诚的人中最没有名气的一位面对面，那些宫廷人物都会显得那么可鄙和肮脏。尊严并不存在于巍峨宫闱、尊贵花园之中，而在波尔-罗亚尔修道院的那些独居之士祈祷、钻研和授业解惑的陋室里。他们的生活也许称不上是人类的理想，但总归是没有虚度的。有什么比值得褒扬的人生更珍贵呢？
