《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 22的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

It is time that we gave a second thought to Puritanism. In the heyday of release from forms which had lost their meaning, it was natural to look back on that period of our history with eyes that saw in it nothing but fanatical excess; we approved the picturesque phrase which showed the English mind going into prison and having the key turned upon it. Now, when the peril of emancipation becomes as manifest as was the hardship of restraint, we shall do well to remember all the good that lay in that stern Puritan discipline, how it renewed the spiritual vitality of our race, and made for the civic freedom which is our highest national privilege. An age of intellectual glory is wont to be paid for in the general decline of that which follows. Imagine England under Stuart rule, with no faith but the Protestantism of the Tudor. Imagine (not to think of worse) English literature represented by Cowley18, and the name of Milton unknown. The Puritan came as the physician; he brought his tonic at the moment when lassitude and supineness would naturally have followed upon a supreme display of racial vitality. Regret, if you will, that England turned for her religion to the books of Israel; this suddenly revealed sympathy of our race with a fierce Oriental theocracy is perhaps not difficult to explain, but one cannot help wishing that its piety had taken another form; later, there had to come the "exodus from Houndsditch19," with how much conflict and misery! Such, however, was the price of the soul's health; we must accept the fact, and be content to see its better meaning. Health, of course, in speaking of mankind, is always a relative term. From the point of view of a conceivable civilization, Puritan England was lamentably ailing; but we must always ask, not how much better off a people might be, but how much worse. Of all theological systems, the most convincing is Manicheism20, which, of course, under another name, was held by the Puritans themselves. What we call Restoration morality—the morality, that is to say, of a king and court—might well have become that of the nation at large under a Stuart dynasty safe from religious revolution.

是时候重新审视清教主义了。在英国从那些丧失意义的形式束缚中解脱出来的全盛期，我们回顾那段历史时，自然只会看到狂热过度，别的什么也看不到。我们赞许“解脱”那样的生动词语，它表明英国人思想进入牢笼，但已有开启牢门的钥匙。在今天，思想解放的危险变得和克制的痛苦一样明显时，我们最好去记住严苛的清教徒信条蕴含着的所有好处，它怎样恢复我们民族的精神活力，促进了作为我们最高国民权利的公民自由。一个知识繁荣的时代，通常是以接下来那个时代的衰落为代价的。想想斯图亚特王室统治下的英格兰，除了都铎王室的新教教义外没有其他信仰。想想（就不想更坏的了）以考利为代表的英国文学，弥尔顿的大名还不为人知。清教徒像医生一样出现了，在民族生命力发展到最高峰后，疲乏和懒散自然地随之而来，就在此时，清教徒带来了他们的补药。如果你愿意，对英格兰从以色列人的书籍中寻求宗教感到遗憾吧。我们民族突然表现出的对凶暴东方神权政治的同情，也许并不难解释，但我们忍不住希望它的虔敬能采取另一种形式。随后到来的应是带来无数争斗和苦难的“霍恩德斯迪奇大迁徒”！然而，这就是灵魂保持健康的代价，我们必须接受这个事实，满足于看到它更好的意义。当然，对于全人类而言，健康总是一个相对的词。从一个文明发展的假设中来看，清教徒的英格兰是令人哀伤的病态文明；但我们必须追问的不是一个民族可能有多好，而是它可能有多糟。在所有神学派别中，最令人信服的是摩尼教，它也被清教徒奉为信仰，当然是在另一个名义下。我们所谓的复辟时期的道德——即国王和王室的道德——很可能会在斯图亚特王朝统治下成为整个国家的道德准则，要是没有经历宗教革命的话。

The political services of Puritanism were inestimable; they will be more feelingly remembered when England has once more to face the danger of political tyranny. I am thinking now of its effects upon social life. To it we owe the characteristic which, in some other countries, is expressed by the term English prudery, the accusation implied being part of the general charge of hypocrisy. It is said by observers among ourselves that the prudish habit of mind is dying out, and this is looked upon as a satisfactory thing, as a sign of healthy emancipation. If by prude be meant a secretly vicious person who affects an excessive decorum, by all means let the prude disappear, even at the cost of some shamelessness. If, on the other hand, a prude is one who, living a decent life, cultivates, either by bent or principle, a somewhat extreme delicacy of thought and speech with regard to elementary facts of human nature, then I say that this is most emphatically a fault in the right direction, and I have no desire to see its prevalence diminish. On the whole, it is the latter meaning which certain foreigners have in mind when they speak of English prudery—at all events, as exhibited by women; it being, not so much an imputation on chastity, as a charge of conceited foolishness. An English woman who typifies the begueule may be spotless as snow; but she is presumed to have snow's other quality, and at the same time to be a thoroughly absurd and intolerable creature. Well, here is the point of difference. Fastidiousness of speech is not a direct outcome of Puritanism, as our literature sufficiently proves; it is a refinement of civilization following upon absorption into the national life of all the best things which Puritanism had to teach. We who know English women by the experience of a lifetime are well aware that their careful choice of language betokens, far more often than not, a corresponding delicacy of mind. Landor21 saw it as a ridiculous trait that English people were so mealy-mouthed in speaking of their bodies; De Quincey22, taking him to task for this remark, declared it a proof of blunted sensibility due to long residence in Italy; and, whether the particular explanation held good or not, as regards the question at issue, De Quincey was perfectly right. It is very good to be mealymouthed with respect to everything that reminds us of the animal in man. Verbal delicacy in itself will not prove an advanced civilization, but civilization, as it advances, assuredly tends that way.

清教主义的政治影响是不可估量的，在英格兰再次面对政治暴政的威胁时，人们会更加充满感情地想起它来。我现在思考的是它对社会生活的影响。它赋予了我们民族一个特征，在其他国家，会用“英国式拘谨”这个词来表达，其中隐含的指责是构成我们虚伪之罪名的一部分。我们的观察家说，拘谨的思维习惯正在消亡，这被视为一件让人满意的事情，视为健康的天性解放的一个标志。如果拘谨指一个人私下里邪恶，而表面上装得十分得体有礼，那就务必让拘谨消失吧，即使代价是大家变得有些无耻。但是另一方面，如果拘谨指一个生活正派的人，出于天性或是原则，在谈及人类性情的基本事实时，思想和言谈中表现得有点过份细腻敏感，那么我要强调这只是在正确方向上出现的一点偏差，我不想看到它不受欢迎而消失。总体上说，某些外国人在谈起英国式拘谨时——至少就女人的表现来说——他们想到的都是后一种意义；与其说是对贞洁的诋毁，不如说是对傲慢和愚蠢的责难。一个作为“假正经”代表的英国妇女，也许和白雪一样纯洁无瑕；但她也被认为有白雪的另外一种品质，同时又十分荒谬可笑，让人无法忍受。好了，这就是不同点。过分讲究措词并不是清教主义造成的直接后果，我们的文学已经充分证明了这一点；它是国民生活吸收了清教主义可教授的所有最好的东西之后，英国文明的一种自我改良。凭着毕生对英国女人的了解和体验，我们清楚地知道，她们谨慎的遣词用语，常常反映了她们思想的细腻敏感。英国人在谈起自己的身体时总是拐弯抹角，可兰多却视之为滑稽可笑。德昆西对他的评语进行谴责，称这是兰多长期寓居意大利使感情变得迟钝的佐证；不管他这种奇特的解释是否正确，德昆西在这个问题上是完全正确的。对于让我们联想起身上兽性的一切事物，拐弯抹角是很好的。言辞的文雅本身不是文明进步的证明，但文明在进步中一定是朝这个方向前进的。