《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 20的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

Is it true that the English are deeply branded with the vice of hypocrisy? The accusation, of course, dates from the time of the Round-heads13; before that, nothing in the national character could have suggested it. The England of Chaucer, the England of Shakespeare, assuredly was not hypocrite. The change wrought by Puritanism introduced into the life of the people that new element which ever since, more or less notably, has suggested to the observer a habit of double-dealing in morality and religion. The scorn of the Cavalier14 is easily understood; it created a traditional Cromwell15, who, till Carlyle arose, figured before the world as our arch-dissembler. With the decline of genuine Puritanism came that peculiarly English manifestation of piety and virtue which is represented by Mr. Pecksniff16—a being so utterly different from Tartufe17, and perhaps impossible to be understood save by Englishmen themselves. But it is in our own time that the familiar reproach has been persistently levelled at us. It often sounds upon the lips of our emancipated youth; it is stereotyped for daily impression in the offices of Continental newspapers. And for the reason one has not far to look. When Napoleon called us a "nation of shop-keepers," we were nothing of the kind; since his day we have become so, in the strictest sense of the word; and consider the spectacle of a flourishing tradesman, anything but scrupulous in his methods of business, who loses no opportunity of bidding all mankind to regard him as a religious and moral exemplar. This is the actual show of things with us; this is the England seen by our bitterest censors. There is an excuse for those who charge us with "hypocrisy."

英国人骨子里有虚伪的恶习，这是真的吗？这种指责当然是始于圆颅党的时代，在那之前，国民性格中没有任何东西暗示了这一点。乔叟的英格兰，莎士比亚的英格兰，都肯定不是虚伪的。清教主义带来的变化，在人们生活中引入了一种新要素，从此以后，它明显地或多或少向观察者暗示了一种道德和宗教上的两面派习惯。对骑士党的嘲讽很容易理解；它造就了一个传统的克伦威尔，在卡莱尔出现之前，他作为我们的头号伪君子在世界上出了名。在真正的清教主义衰落后，到来的是英国特有的虔敬和美德的表现，其代表人物是佩克斯列夫先生——他与达尔杜弗完全不同，也许除了英国人，没有人能理解他。但直到我们这个时代，这种常见的虚伪指责才不断地朝我们飞来。在英国自由的年轻人嘴里，也经常能听到它；在欧洲大陆的报馆里，它已经每天都成为对英国人固定的印象了，其原因是不难探求的。当拿破仑把我们称为“小商店主之国”时，我们和虚伪还沾不上边；在他倒台之后，我们才变成了最严格意义上的这样的国家了。想想一个生意兴隆的商人的那个样子吧，他在做生意的方法上不择手段，同时不肯错过一个机会让所有人将他视为宗教和道德的楷模。这就是我们的实际情形，这就是我们最刻薄的责难者眼中的英格兰。这就是那些给我们安上“虚伪”罪名的人们的口实。

But the word is ill-chosen, and indicates a misconception. The characteristic of your true hypocrite is the assumption of a virtue which not only he has not, but which he is incapable of possessing, and in which he does not believe. The hypocrite may have, most likely has, (for he is a man of brains,) a conscious rule of life, but it is never that of the person to whom his hypocrisy is directed. Tartufe incarnates him once for all. Tartufe is by conviction an atheist and a sensualist; he despises all who regard life from the contrasted point of view. But among Englishmen such an attitude of mind has always been extremely rare; to presume it in our typical money-maker who has edifying sentiments on his lips is to fall into a grotesque error of judgment. No doubt that error is committed by the ordinary foreign journalist, a man who knows less than little of English civilization. More enlightened critics, if they use the word at all, do so carelessly; when speaking with more precision, they call the English "pharisaic"—and come nearer the truth.

但是这个词选得并不恰当，显示出一种误解。真正的虚伪，其特点是假装有一种美德，而他不仅本身不具有，而且无力拥有，同时自己也不相信。伪君子也许有，也极可能有（因为他是聪明人）一套自觉的生活准则，但这准则绝不属于其伪善所针对的人。达尔杜弗是这种人的最典型代表，他是一个坚定的无神论者和享乐主义者，他鄙视所有从对立角度看待人生的人，但这种思想态度在英国人中一向是极少的。如果假定我们一位口头带着善意说教的典型商人持有这种态度，那便是犯了荒唐的判断错误。无疑，对英国文明几乎一无所知的普通外国记者会犯这个错误。开明一点的批评家如果使用了这个词，那是不经心；在严谨的交谈中，他们会说英国人是“法利赛人式的”——这个词更贴近事实。

Our vice is self-righteousness. We are essentially an Old Testament people; Christianity has never entered into our soul, we see ourselves as the Chosen, and by no effort of spiritual aspiration can attain unto humility. In this there is nothing hypocritic. The blatant upstart who builds a church, lays out his money in that way not merely to win social consideration; in his curious little soul he believes (so far as he can believe anything) that what he has done is pleasing to God and beneficial to mankind. He may have lied and cheated for every sovereign he possesses; he may have polluted his life with uncleanness; he may have perpetrated many kinds of cruelty and baseness—but all these things has he done against his conscience, and, as soon as the opportunity comes, he will make atonement for them in the way suggested by such faith as he has, the way approved by public opinion. His religion, strictly defined, is AN INER ADICABLE BELIEF IN HIS OWN RELIGIOUSNESS. As an Englishman, he holds as birthright the true Piety, the true Morals. That he has "gone wrong is, alas, undeniable, but never—even when leering most satirically—did he deny his creed. When, at public dinners and elsewhere, he tuned his voice to the note of edification, this man did not utter the lie of the hypocrite he MEANT EVERY WORD HE SAID. Uttering high sentiments, he spoke, not as an individual, but as an Englishman, and most thoroughly did he believe that all who heard him owed in their hearts allegiance to the same faith. He is, if you like, a Pharisee—but do not misunderstand; his Pharisaism has nothing personal. That would be quite another kind of man; existing, to be sure, in England, but not as a national type. No; he is a Pharisee in the minor degree with regard to those of his countrymen who differ from him in dogma; he is Pharisee absolute with regard to the foreigner. And there he stands, representing an Empire.

我们的恶习是自以为是。我们在本质上还是旧约时代的人，基督教从来没有渗透我们的灵魂，我们自视为上帝的选民，精神上怎样努力也学不会谦卑。这里没有任何虚伪。张扬的暴发户拿出钱修建教堂，不仅仅是为了赢得社会的尊重；在他古怪的渺小灵魂中，他确实相信（只要他真的能相信任何东西）他所做的事是取悦上帝和有益人类的。他手中的每一个金币也许都是靠撒谎和欺骗得来的；他的不洁行为也许污染了自己的生活；他也许做过许多冷酷卑贱的坏事——但这些坏事都是他昧着良心做的，只要机会一来临，他就会依照自身信仰的指引，用舆论认可的方式来弥补过失。他的宗教严格定义来讲是“对自身虔诚的一种根深蒂固的信仰”。作为一名英国人，他将真正的虔敬和真正的道德视为与生俱来的权利。他“走上歧路”是不可否认的，但他从没否认自己的信仰——即使他极为嘲讽地睥睨一切时。在公共宴会或其他场合，当他的语气带着教诲意味时，他没有像伪君子那样撒谎，他“说出的每个字都是真心的”。他在唱这些高调时，不是作为个人，而是作为一名英国人，他也彻头彻尾地相信所有聆听他讲话的人内心都忠于同一个信仰。你可以说，他是一个自以为是的法利赛人——但不要误解，他的自以为是和个人没有关系，那样就会是另外一种人了。这种人当然在英国也存在，但不是这个民族的典型代表。不，对于其他持不同信条的同胞，他自以为是的程度并不深；对于外国人而言，他则是绝对的自以为是的法利赛人。他站在那里，代表的是一个帝国。

The word hypocrisy is perhaps most of all applied to our behavior in matters of sexual morality, and here with specially flagrant misuse. Multitudes of Englishmen have thrown aside the national religious dogma, but very few indeed have abandoned the conviction that the rules of morality publicly upheld in England are the best known in the world. Any one interested in doing so can but too easily demonstrate that English social life is no purer than that of most other countries. Scandals of peculiar grossness, at no long intervals, give rich opportunity to the scoffer. The streets of our great towns nightly present an exhibition the like of which cannot be seen elsewhere in the world. Despite all this, your average Englishman takes for granted his country's moral superiority, and loses no chance of proclaiming it at the expense of other peoples. To call him hypocrite, is simply not to know the man. He may, for his own part, be gross-minded and lax of life; that has nothing to do with the matter; HE BELIEVES IN VIRTUE. Tell him that English morality is mere lip-service, and he will blaze with as honest anger as man ever felt. He is a monument of self-righteousness, again not personal but national.

虚伪这个词用在我们性行为和道德上的时候可能最多，但这里它的误用也最离谱。许多英国人已将民族宗教信条抛在一边，但是几乎没有人真正放弃这一信念，即英格兰普遍奉行的道德法则是世界上最好的。任何人有兴趣一试都能轻而易举地证明，英国社会生活并不比大多数国家更纯洁。间隔不长时间便会出现异常粗俗的丑闻，给嘲笑者提供了丰富的口实。我们大城市在夜晚上演的街景，是在世界其他地方看不到的。尽管如此，普通的英国人对本国在道德上的优越视为理所当然，从不放过一个机会来贬斥其他民族以表明这一点。说他虚伪，是根本不了解这个人。他本身也许思想粗俗，生活不羁，但和这件事毫无关系，他信仰道德。如果跟他说英国道德只是口惠而实不至，他真的就会勃然大怒。他是自以为是的一座纪念碑，再次重申，这不是个人的而是民族的。