[Footnote 1: In 1871.]
I hope, therefore, that I am justified in the belief that in its new and
larger form my little tract may again claim attention from such as need
its lessons. Since it was meant only for these, I need not excuse myself
to physicians for its simplicity; while I trust that certain of my
brethren may find in it enough of original thought to justify its
reappearance, as its statistics were taken from manuscript notes and
have been printed in no scientific journal.
I have called these Hints WEAR and TEAR, because this title clearly and
briefly points out my meaning. _Wear_ is a natural and legitimate result
of lawful use, and is what we all have to put up with as the result of
years of activity of brain and body. _Tear_ is another matter: it comes
of hard or evil usage of body or engine, of putting things to wrong
purposes, using a chisel for a screw-driver, a penknife for a gimlet.
Long strain, or the sudden demand of strength from weakness, causes
tear. Wear comes of use; tear, of abuse.
The sermon of which these words are the text has been preached many
times in many ways to congregations for whom the Dollar Devil had always
a more winning eloquence. Like many another man who has talked wearily
to his fellows with an honest sense of what they truly need, I feel how
vain it is to hope for many earnest listeners.
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