《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 19的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

The Christmas bells drew me forth this morning. With but half-formed purpose, I walked through soft, hazy sunshine towards the city, and came into the Cathedral Close, and, after lingering awhile, heard the first notes of the organ, and so entered. I believe it is more than thirty years since I was in an English church on Christmas Day. The old time and the old faces lived again for me; I saw myself on the far side of the abyss of years—that self which is not myself at all, though I mark points of kindred between the beings of then and now. He who in that other world sat to hear the Christmas gospel, either heeded it not at all—rapt in his own visions—or listened only as one in whose blood was heresy. He loved the notes of the organ, but, even in his childish mind, distinguished clearly between the music and its local motive. More than that, he could separate the melody of word and of thought from their dogmatic significance, enjoying the one whilst wholly rejecting the other. "On earth peace, goodwill to men"—already that line was among the treasures of his intellect, but only, no doubt, because of its rhythm, its sonority. Life, to him, was a half-conscious striving for the harmonic in thought and speech—and through what a tumult of unmelodious circumstance was he beginning to fight his way!

今天早晨，圣诞钟声引我前行。我穿过柔和朦胧的阳光，走向市区，心里并没有明确的目的，到了教堂的院子，稍作停留，听到管风琴响起来，我便走了进去。我相信自己已经三十多年没有在圣诞节来过英国教堂了。昔日时光和旧时面孔重新在心头复活，我看到自己在岁月鸿沟的另一边——那个我根本不是我，尽管我注意到昔日和今时的我之间有很多相似之处。他坐在另一个世界，聆听着圣诞福音，也许根本没听进去——沉浸在自己的思绪中——或者在聆听时满怀异端邪说。他喜欢管风琴的乐声，然而在他幼稚的头脑中，他便将音乐与它的狭隘动机区分得很清楚。不仅如此，他能够将话语及思想的音乐性与它们的教条意义分开，享受前者，而完全摒弃后者。“世上有和平，善意在人间”——这句话已经成为他智慧的珍宝之一，但无疑只是因为它的节奏、它的响亮。生活对他而言，是一种半自觉的对思想和言语和谐的追求——而在怎样刺耳的喧嚣境况中，他开始为自己辟出一条路来！

To-day, I listen with no heretical promptings. The music, whether of organ or of word, is more to me than ever; the literal meaning causes me no restiveness. I felt only glad that I had yielded to the summons of the Christmas bells. I sat among a congregation of shadows, not in the great cathedral, but in a little parish church far from here. When I came forth, it astonished me to see the softly radiant sky, and to tread on the moist earth; my dream expected a wind-swept canopy of cold grey, and all beneath it the gleam of new-fallen snow. It is a piety to turn awhile and live with the dead, and who can so well indulge it as he whose Christmas is passed in no unhappy solitude? I would not now, if I might, be one of a joyous company; it is better to hear the long-silent voices, and to smile at happy things which I alone can remember. When I was scarce old enough to understand, I heard read by the fireside the Christmas stanzas of "In Memoriam."12 To-night I have taken down the volume, and the voice of so long ago has read to me once again—read as no other ever did, that voice which taught me to know poetry, the voice which never spoke to me but of good and noble things. Would I have those accents overborne by a living tongue, however welcome its sound at another time? Jealously I guard my Christmas solitude.

今天，我在聆听教堂音乐时没有任何异端想法。无论是管风琴的乐声，还是语言的韵律，对我都有比以往更大的意义，歌词的意义也没有让我不耐烦。这样接受了圣诞钟声的召唤，我感到的只是愉快。我在教众的影子里坐着，不是在大教堂，而是在离这里很远的一个小教区的教堂。我走出来时，看见柔和灿烂的天空，踩在湿润的泥土上，感觉很惊讶，因为我本来梦想看到的会是冷风席卷灰色寒冷的天空，大地上闪耀着新降的白雪。离开人世和死者相处一会儿是一种虔诚，有谁能像那个在愉快的孤独中度过圣诞节的人一样，充分地放纵这种心情？就算可以，我也不愿成为欢乐人群中的一员。听听那久已沉默的声音，微笑面对那些只有我自己能记住的快乐事物，我觉得更好。在年纪尚轻还无法理解的时候，我听到有人在壁炉旁念《纪念诗》中关于圣诞节的章节。今晚，我取下了这本书，很久以前的那个声音又响在我的耳畔——这阅读的声音是独一无二的，这声音教我理解诗歌，这声音跟我谈起的只是美好高尚的事物。不管在世的人发出的声音在其他时候听来多么地悦耳，我能愿意它压过这种诗音吗？我小心翼翼地守护着自己圣诞节的孤独。