《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 - 冬 13的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

If some stranger from abroad asked me to point out to him the most noteworthy things in England, I should first of all consider his intellect. Were he a man of everyday level, I might indicate for his wonder and admiration Greater London2, the Black Country3, South Lancashire, and other features of our civilization which, despite eager rivalry, still maintain our modern pre-eminence in the creation of ugliness. If, on the other hand, he seemed a man of brains, it would be my pleasure to take him to one of those old villages, in the midlands or the west, which lie at some distance from a railway station, and in aspect are still untouched by the baser tendencies of the time. Here, I would tell my traveller, he saw something which England alone can show. The simple beauty of the architecture, its perfect adaptation to the natural surroundings, the neatness of everything though without formality, the general cleanness and good repair, the grace of cottage gardens, that tranquillity and security which make a music in the mind of him who gazes—these are what a man must see and feel if he would appreciate the worth and the power of England. The people which has made for itself such homes as these is distinguished, above all things, by its love of order; it has understood, as no other people, the truth that "order is heaven's first law." With order it is natural to find stability, and the combination of these qualities, as seen in domestic life, results in that peculiarly English product, our name for which—though but a pale shadow of the thing itself—has been borrowed by other countries: comfort.

如果国外的某个陌生人央我为他指出英国最有特色的事物，我会首先考虑他的智慧。如果他只是个普通人，为博得他的惊异和钦羡，我可能会举出大伦敦、黑乡、南兰开夏郡和我们文明的其他特色，虽然面临激烈的竞争，这些地方在制造丑陋上还保持着现代的领先地位。而如果他是一个有智慧的人，那我会很乐意把他带到中部或西部的一座古老村庄，这些村庄远离火车站，还未受到时代卑劣趋势的影响。我会告诉这位旅行者，他在这里看到的是英格兰独有的东西。这里的建筑有一种与自然环境浑然天成的简约美，整齐而不拘谨，处处干净完好。村舍花园雅致秀丽，那种平静和安全感会让人脑海中浮现一曲音乐——这些是一个想要体会英格兰价值和力量的人必须看见和感受的事物。一个为自己建造出这样家园的民族是卓越不群的，首先因为它对秩序的热爱；它比其他任何民族都懂得“秩序是上天的第一法则”这一真理。有了秩序，自然可以找到稳定，这些特点的结合，就像在家庭生活中看到的那样，造就了一件独特的英国产品，它的名字——尽管不过是事物本身一个苍白的影子——被许多国家借用，那就是“舒适”。

Then Englishman's need of "comfort" is one of his best characteristics; the possibility that he may change in this respect, and become indifferent to his old ideal of physical and mental ease, is the gravest danger manifest in our day. For "comfort," mind you, does not concern the body alone; the beauty and orderliness of an Englishman's home derive their value, nay, their very existence, from the spirit which directs his whole life. Walk from the village to the noble's mansion. It, too, is perfect of its kind; it has the dignity of age, its walls are beautiful, the gardens, the park about are such as can be found only in England, lovely beyond compare; and all this represents the same moral characteristics as the English cottage, but with greater activities and responsibilities. If the noble grows tired of his mansion, and, letting it to some rude owner of millions, goes to live in hotels and hired villas; if the cottager sickens of his village roof, and transports himself to the sixth floor of a "block" in Shoreditch4; one sees but too well that the one and the other have lost the old English sense of comfort, and, in losing it, have suffered degradation alike as men and as citizens. It is not a question of exchanging one form of comfort for another; the instinct which made an Englishman has in these cases perished. Perhaps it is perishing from among us altogether, killed by new social and political conditions; one who looks at villages of the new type, at the workingclass quarters of towns, at the rising of "flats" among the dwellings of the wealthy, has little choice but to think so. There may soon come a day when, though the word "comfort" continues to be used in many languages, the thing it signifies will be discoverable nowhere at all.

英国人对“舒适”的需求是他最好的品质之一；而他有可能在这方面发生改变，也许会淡漠了那种身心舒适的旧时理想，这种可能性是我们这个时代最严重的威胁。注意了，“舒适”并不只针对身体而言；英国人家的美丽和秩序获得其价值，不，获得其本身存在的来源，就是引导他整个生活的这种精神。从村庄步行到贵族的府邸，那儿也是舒适的完美典型：红墙绿瓦，古朴庄严，周围的花园无比可爱，只有在英格兰才能看到。所有这些和英国的村舍一样，代表了同样的精神品质，只不过这里容纳着更多社会活动和更重要的责任。如果贵族厌倦了他的府邸，将它租给某个粗俗的百万富翁，自己住到旅馆和租来的别墅里；如果村民厌倦了村庄的房舍，住到肖尔迪奇一个“街区”公寓的第六层；人们可以清楚地看到，这两者都丢失了英国旧时意义上的“舒适”，因此，他们在作为人和公民的双重身份上都遭到了降格。这并非两种舒适的居住方式之间互换的问题；使英国人成之为英国人的本能在这两种情形下都消灭了。也许它正在我们之中逐渐消亡，被新的社会和政治条件扼杀；看到新型的村庄、城里工人们聚集的社区、富人区拔地而起的“公寓”，人们只能这么想。可能很快会有一天，虽然“舒适”一词仍然在很多语言中使用，但它指代的事物将彻底无处可觅了。