A novelist, we reflect, is bound to build up his structure with much very perishable material which begins by lending it reality and ends by cumbering it with rubbish.

我们设想，一位小说家必定会使用许多很不经久耐用的材料，来建立他的小说结构，这些材料起初给它以现实感，最后却使它被没用的废料所拖累。

youdao

These would have been inscriptions either on pottery, which the earliest ones are,or on stone, but otherwise I'm sure there was writing on perishable material-wooden plaques, probably not yet paper, but these would have been destroyed.

有些是刻在陶器上的铭文,最早期的时候,是刻在石头上的,但另外,我能肯定,有些是写在易腐蚀的材质,比如木头,或者瓷片上的,当时应该还没有出现纸,但是这些都被毁坏了

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