The consequence is that, when for any reason a shade of doubt comes
over men's minds that the combination is not working, that the
machine is at some point going to give way, that somebody is not
playing his part fairly, the solid ground seems to shake under their
feet, and we have some of the phenomena resulting from an
earthquake, and among others blind terror. But to anyone who
understands what this new social force, Credit, is, and the part it
plays in human affairs, the wonder is, not that it gives way so
seldom, but that it stands so firm; that these hundreds of millions
of laborers, artisans, shopkeepers, merchants, bankers, and
manufacturers hold so firmly from day to day the countless
engagements into which they enter, and that each recurring year the
result of the prodigious effort which is now put forth in the
civilized world in the work of production should be distributed with
so much accuracy and honesty, and, on the whole, with so much wise
adjustment to the value of each man's contributions to civilization.
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