If Babel stoope: that to the cloudes did clime:
If Athens, and Nvmantia suffered spoile:
If Ægypt spires, be euened with the soile.
Then, what maye laste, which time dothe not impeache,
Since that wee see, theise monumentes are gone:
Nothinge at all, but time doth ouer reache,
It eates the steele, and weares the marble stone:
But writinges laste, thoughe yt doe what it can,
And are preseru’d, euen since the worlde began.
And so they shall, while that they same dothe laste,