《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 09的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

It is amusing to note the superficial forms of reaction against scientific positivism. The triumph of Darwin was signalized by the invention of that happy word Agnostic, which had great vogue. But agnosticism, as a fashion, was far too reasonable to endure. There came a rumour of Oriental magic, (how the world repeats itself!) and presently every one who had nothing better to do gossipped about "esoteric Buddhism"— the saving adjective sounded well in a drawing-room. It did not hold very long, even with the novelists; for the English taste this esotericism was too exotic. Somebody suggested that the old table-turning and spirit-rapping, which had homely associations, might be re-considered in a scientific light, and the idea was seized upon. Superstition pranked in the professor's spectacles, it set up a laboratory, and printed grave reports. Day by day its sphere widened. Hypnotism brought matter for the marvel-mongers, and there followed a long procession of words in limping Greek—a little difficult till practice had made perfect. Another fortunate terminologist hit upon the word "psychical"—the P might be sounded or not, according to the taste and fancy of the pronouncer—and the fashionable children of a scientific age were thoroughly at ease. "There MUST be something, you know; one always felt that there MUST be something." And now, if one may judge from what one reads, psychical "science" is comfortably joining hands with the sorcery of the Middle Ages. It is said to be a lucrative moment for wizards that peep and that mutter. If the law against fortune-telling were as strictly enforced in the polite world as it occasionally is in slums and hamlets, we should have a merry time. But it is difficult to prosecute a Professor of Telepathy—and how he would welcome the advertisement!

看到旨在颠覆科学实证主义的种种肤浅形式，我们可能会忍俊不禁。达尔文的胜利，是以“不可知”这个妙词的发明为标志的，它现在大行其道。但作为时尚的不可知论太过理性，让人无法忍受。关于东方巫术（历史总是重复自己啊！）的谣言一传来，“诡秘佛教”立刻就成了街头巷尾无聊人士的谈资——“诡秘”这个增色的形容词在客厅里听起来很不错。它的寿命不长，连小说家也很快受不了它；因为对于英国人的品味，“诡秘主义”听起来有太重的异域感。有人建议，对让人产生亲切联想的古老的桌灵转和招魂术，从科学角度进行再思考，这个主意很快付诸实施了。迷信在教授的眼镜里胡闹，它建立了实验室，印出了严肃的报告，它的疆域一日日拓展。催眠术给那些猎奇者提供了素材，随之便出现了一长串蹩脚的希腊词——起初有点难，后来则熟能生巧。另一个幸运的术语学家碰上了psychical（灵）这个词，根据个人的口味和喜好，p发不发音两可——于是，科学时代的时髦孩子们完全安然自处了。“你知道，肯定有某种东西，我一直觉得肯定有某种东西”。现在，如果从我们所读到的来判断，通灵的“科学”已经和中世纪的巫术愉快地联手了。据说这正是嘴里念念有词眼睛偷瞅人的巫师们的发财时代。如果禁止算命的法律在上流社会中和偶然在陋巷寒村一样严格地加以执行，那我们便可以获得一段开心时光。然而，起诉一个传心术教授并不容易——而他将多么欢迎这种免费广告！

Of course I know very well that all that make use of these words are not in one and the same category. There is a study of the human mind, in health and in disease, which calls for as much respect as any other study conscientiously and capably pursued; that it lends occasion to fribbles and knaves is no argument against any honest tendency of thought. Men whom one cannot but esteem are deeply engaged in psychical investigations, and have convinced themselves that they are brought into touch with phenomena inexplicable by the commonly accepted laws of life. Be it so. They may be on the point of making discoveries in the world beyond sense. For my own part, everything of this kind not only does not interest me; I turn from it with the strongest distaste. If every wonder-story examined by the Psychical Society were set before me with irresistible evidence of its truth, my feeling (call it my prejudice) would undergo no change whatever. No whit the less should I yawn over the next batch, and lay the narratives aside with—yes, with a sort of disgust. "An ounce of civet, good apothecary!"23 Why it should be so with me I cannot say. I am as indifferent to the facts or fancies of spiritualism as I am, for instance, to the latest mechanical application of electricity. Edisons and Marconis24 may thrill the world with astounding novelties; they astound me, as every one else, but straightway I forget my astonishment, and am in every respect the man I was before. The thing has simply no concern for me, and I care not a volt if to-morrow the proclaimed discovery be proved a journalist's mistake or invention.

当然，我非常清楚，利用这些词的人不是一丘之貉。确实有一门学问专门研究人类在健康或疾病状况下头脑的情况，和其他专心从事的研究一样值得受到尊重；它会被无聊和无赖的人利用，这并不能作为抵制任何诚实思想倾向的理由。有些我们应该敬重的人，全身心致力于通灵的研究，并深信自己触到了一些不能用公认的生命规律来解释的现象。就由他们去吧！也许他们正要在超越感官外的世界里面有所发现。就我自己来说，所有这类事情我都不感兴趣，甚至带着最强烈的厌恶回避它们。即使将通灵协会研究过的每一桩奇闻异事都放在我面前，用最无可辩驳的证据来证明它的真实性，我的感觉（或者说，我的偏见）也不会有一星半点的改变。再来一堆故事，我会一样哈欠连天，将奇闻异事搁置一边——对，很反感地。“来一盎司灵猫香，好药剂师！”为什么有这种心态，我自己也说不清楚。我对招魂说，就像对电的最新机械应用一样不感兴趣。爱迪生和马可尼之辈可以用惊人的新奇事物让世界兴奋不已；如所有人一样，我也被他们震惊了，但很快我会忘掉自己的惊异，在各方面都和过去一般无二。这种事与我根本没有关系，我也不在乎明天这个所谓的发现是否会是一个新闻记者的错误或杜撰。

Am I, then, a hidebound materialist? If I know myself, hardly that. Once, in conversation with G. A., I referred to his position as that of the agnostic. He corrected me. "The agnostic grants that there MAY be something beyond the sphere of man's knowledge; I can make no such admission. For me, what is called the unknowable is simply the non-existent. We see what is, and we see all." Now this gave me a sort of shock; it seemed incredible to me that a man of so much intelligence could hold such a view.

那么，我是一个保守的唯物主义者吗？如果我了解自己的话，那并不是如此。曾经在和G.A.的谈话中，我将他的立场指认为不可知论。他纠正了我,“不可知论认为，在人们的认识领域之外可能存在某些东西，我可不同意这种看法。在我看来，所谓的不可知事物根本是不存在的。我们感知到的，它就存在，我们能感知到所有存在的事物。”我听完后大吃一惊，一个如此智慧的人竟然持这种观点，显得令人难以置信。

So far am I from feeling satisfied with any explanation, scientific or other, of myself and of the world about me, that not a day goes by but I fall a-marvelling before the mystery of the universe. To trumpet the triumphs of human knowledge seems to me worse than childishness; now, as of old, we know but one thing—that we know nothing. What! Can I pluck the f lower by the wayside, and, as I gaze at it, feel that, if I knew all the teachings of histology, morphology, and so on, with regard to it, I should have exhausted its meanings? What is all this but words, words, words? Interesting, yes, as observation; but, the more interesting, so much the more provocative of wonder and of hopeless questioning. One may gaze and think till the brain whirls—till the little blossom in one's hand becomes as overwhelming a miracle as the very sun in heaven. Nothing to be known? The flower simply a flower, and there an end on't? The man simply a product of evolutionary law, his senses and his intellect merely availing him to take account of the natural mechanism of which he forms a part? I find it very hard to believe that this is the conviction of any human mind. Rather I would think that despair at an insoluble problem, and perhaps impatience with those who pretend to solve it, bring about a resolute disregard of everything beyond the physical fact, and so at length a self-deception which seems obtuseness.

对于我自身和周围的世界，任何科学的或是其他的解释，都远不能让我感到满意，以致于每一天我都惊异于宇宙的奇迹。鼓吹人类知识的胜利，在我看来比幼稚还要不如。现在和过去一样，我们知道的只有一件事——那就是，我们一无所知。什么！我在路边摘了一朵花，凝视着它，我会想到：假如我对生物组织学、生物形态学等相关知识都了如指掌，我就能奢望穷尽这朵花的含义吗？所有这些除了词、词、词，还有什么呢？有趣，是的，站在观察的角度；然而，越有趣，就越能勾起人们的兴趣和无望的探询。我们可以凝视并思考，直到头晕脑胀——直到手中的小花变成像太阳一样炫目的奇迹。无可探求吗？花不过是一朵花，仅此而已？人类不过是进化规律的一个产物，他的感官和智慧只是帮助他来理解自己作为其中一部分的自然机制？我很难相信这是每个人心中的想法。我宁愿这样想，因为对一个无法解决的难题的绝望，或许还对假装已经解决这难题的人缺乏耐心，导致了人们彻底忽视了超越物质形态存在的一切事物，最后造成了一种看似愚蠢的自我欺骗。