“ ‘All changing species should my song recite; Before I ceased, would change the day to night. Nations and empires flourish, and decay, By turns command, and in their turns obey; Time softens hardy people; time again Hardens to war a soft, unwarlike train. Thus Troy for ten long years her foes withstood, And, daily bleeding, bore the expense of blood: Now for thick streets it shows an empty space, Or, only fill’d with tombs of her own perish’d race, Herself becomes the sepulchre of what she was.

“ ‘Mycene, Sparta, Thebes, of mighty fame, Are vanish’d out of substance into name; And Dardan Rome, that just begins to rise On Tiber’s banks, in time shall mate the skies; Widening her bounds, and working on her way, Ev’n now she meditates imperial sway: Yet this is change, but she by changing thrives, Like moons new born, and in her cradle strives To fill her infant horns: an hour shall come, When the round world shall be contain’d in Rome.