《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 21的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

I make use of the present tense, but am I speaking truly of present England? Such powerful agencies of change have been at work during the last thirty years; and it is difficult, nay impossible, to ascertain in what degree they have affected the national character, thus far. One notes the obvious: decline of conventional religion, free discussion of the old moral standards; therewith, a growth of materialism which favours every anarchic tendency. Is it to be feared that self-righteousness may be degenerating into the darker vice of true hypocrisy? For the English to lose belief in themselves—not merely in their potential goodness, but in their pre-eminence as examples and agents of good—would mean as hopeless a national corruption as any recorded in history. To doubt their genuine worship, in the past, of a very high (though not, of course, the highest) ethical ideal, is impossible for any one born and bred in England; no less impossible to deny that those who are rightly deemed "best" among us, the men and women of gentle or humble birth who are not infected by the evils of the new spirit, still lead, in a very true sense, "honest, sober, and godly" lives. Such folk, one knows, were never in a majority, but of old they had a power which made them veritable representatives of the English ETHOS. If they thought highly of themselves, why, the fact justified them; if they spoke, at times, as Pharisees, it was a fault of temper which carried with it no grave condemnation. Hypocrisy was, of all forms of baseness, that which they most abhorred. So is it still with their descendants. Whether these continue to speak among us with authority, no man can certainly say. If their power is lost, and those who talk of English hypocrisy no longer use the word amiss, we shall soon know it.

我用的是现在时，但我谈的果真是现在的英格兰吗？在过去三十年中，很多强大的代表变革的组织一直活动着。要确定它们迄今对民族性格造成多少影响是困难的，不，简直是不可能的。我们注意到一些明显的事实：传统宗教的衰落，旧道德标准的自由讨论；同时，还有赞成各种无政府主义倾向的唯物主义的发展。我们是否应该担心自以为是的品性会堕落成真正伪善的恶习呢？因为如果英国人丧失对自身的信仰——不仅不相信自身潜在的善良，而且怀疑他们作为善良之模范和代表的崇高地位——那便预示着有史可查的那种绝望的全民族堕落。每一个生长在英格兰的人，都不可能怀疑他们过去对高尚（尽管肯定不是最高尚）道德理想的真诚膜拜；就像不可能怀疑那些被视为我们之中“最好的”，那些没有受到新时代精神邪恶影响的出身高贵或低微的男男女女，仍然过着真正意义上“诚实、清醒和正直”的生活。我们知道，这种人从来为数不多，但自古以来他们就拥有一种力量，使他们成为英国“气质”的真正代表。如果他们自视甚高，那也有充分的理由；如果他们的谈话有时自以为是，那是脾性上的瑕疵，不应招致严厉的谴责。在卑鄙人性的许多表现形式中，虚伪是他们最憎恶的，他们的后代亦是如此。这些人的话在我们之中是否还有威信，没有人能肯定。是否他们丧失了力量，是否虚伪这个词来形容英国人不再是误用，这我们很快就能知道了。