《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 10的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

It may well be that what we call the unknowable will be for ever the unknown. In that thought is there not a pathos beyond words? It may be that the human race will live and pass away; all mankind, from him who in the world's dawn first shaped to his fearful mind an image of the Lord of Life, to him who, in the dusking twilight of the last age, shall crouch before a deity of stone or wood; and never one of that long lineage have learnt the wherefore of his being. The prophets, the martyrs, their noble anguish vain and meaningless; the wise whose thought strove to eternity, and was but an idle dream; the pure in heart whose life was a vision of the living God, the suffering and the mourners whose solace was in a world to come, the victims of injustice who cried to the Judge Supreme—all gone down into silence, and the globe that bare them circling dead and cold through soundless space. The most tragic aspect of such a tragedy is that it is not unthinkable. The soul revolts, but dare not see in this revolt the assurance of its higher destiny. Viewing our life thus, is it not easier to believe that the tragedy is played with no spectator? And of a truth, of a truth, what spectator can there be? The day may come when, to all who live, the Name of Names will be but an empty symbol, rejected by reason and by faith. Yet the tragedy will be played on.

我们称为未知的东西可能将永远不为我们所知。这样想来岂不是有一种言语无法尽述的惆怅？也许人类生存万代，终将灭绝；从世界熹微之时在他敬畏的头脑中塑造出“生命之神”形象的第一人，到那个在末世纪的幽暗暮色中最后一人，都会蜷缩在石质或木质神像前；而在长长的人类谱系里，没有一个人能够了解自己存在的原因。那些预言家和殉道者，他们高贵的悲痛是虚妄、没有意义的；睿智的人，他们的思想苦苦探求永恒的意义，却不过是一场虚幻的梦；心灵纯净的人，他们的生活是神灵活在现世的幻像；那受苦的和哀悼的人，他们的慰藉寄托在来世；那些社会公正的受害者，他们向最高法官哭诉——所有这些人都将归入沉默，地球将带着他们冰冷的尸体在死寂的太空中盘旋。这一悲剧的最可悲之处在于，它并非是不可想象的。灵魂奋起反抗，但在这反抗中却不敢保证有更高的神灵。这样看待我们的生活，是不是更容易相信悲剧上演时没有观众？而就真相来说，在真相面前又有什么观众呢？那一天会到来，对于所有活着的人，“神明之名”不过是一个被理智和信仰摒弃的空虚符号。悲剧将继续上演。

It is not, I say, unthinkable; but that is not the same thing as to declare that life has no meaning beyond the sense it bears to human intelligence. The intelligence itself rejects such a supposition; in my case, with impatience and scorn. No theory of the world which ever came to my knowledge is to me for one moment acceptable; the possibility of an explanation which would set my mind at rest is to me inconceivable; no whit the less am I convinced that there is a Reason of the All; one which transcends my understanding, one no glimmer of which will ever touch my apprehension; a Reason which must imply a creative power, and therefore, even whilst a necessity of my thought, is by the same criticized into nothing. A like antinomy with that which affects our conception of the infinite in time and space. Whether the rational processes have reached their final development, who shall say? Perhaps what seem to us the impassable limits of thought are but the conditions of a yet early stage in the history of man. Those who make them a proof of a "future state" must necessarily suppose gradations in that futurity; does the savage, scarce risen above the brute, enter upon the same "new life" as the man of highest civilization? Such gropings of the mind certify our ignorance; the strange thing is that they can be held by any one to demonstrate that our ignorance is final knowledge.

我说过，它并非是不可想象的；但这并不等同于说，生活在人类智慧所能洞悉的意义外，就是空虚了。智慧本身就无法接受这一推测，而我自己对这一看法是不耐烦和蔑视的。我获知的关于世界的理论，没有一个是可接受的；我无法想象存在一个让我心安的解释，我还是相信存在所谓的“万有理性”。它超越我的理解范畴，不能给我的理解带来一点光亮；这种理性肯定包含一种创造力，就在它成为我思想必不可少的一部分时，还被我的思想批驳得一无是处。同样的自相矛盾也影响着我们对时间和空间无限的观念。理性思维是否已达到最终的发展阶段，谁能这么说呢？也许在我们看来无法跨越的思维极限，不过是人类历史早期阶段的情形罢了。那些将之作为“未来状态”之证据的人，一定是将未来划定了层次；那些与畜生无异的野蛮人，能说进入了和更高级文明的人一样的“新生活”吗？头脑的这种探索证实了我们的无知；奇怪的是，它们可以被任何人拿来证明，我们的无知是最后的知识。