Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake
As the day lessens, and his life with it.
Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call,
Before thy journey, fairly past with all.
The dangers that wait on suretyship, and the madness of yielding to its pressing importunities, are thus set forth:
Yet be not surety, if thou be a father;
Love is a personal debt. I cannot give
My children’s right, nor ought he take it, rather
Both friends should die, than hinder them to live.
Fathers first enter bonds to nature’s ends,