development. Out of the inflation of prices grew a speculating class;
and, in the complete uncertainty as to the future, all business became
a game of chance, and all business men, gamblers. In city centers
came a quick growth of stock-jobbers and speculators; and these set a
debasing fashion in business which spread to the remotest parts of the
country. Instead of satisfaction with legitimate profits, came a
passion for inordinate gains. Then, too, as values became more and
more uncertain, there was no longer any motive for care or economy,
but every motive for immediate expenditure and present enjoyment. So
came upon the nation the _obliteration of thrift_. In this mania for
yielding to present enjoyment rather than providing for future comfort
were the seeds of new growths of wretchedness: luxury, senseless and
extravagant, set in: this, too, spread as a fashion. To feed it,
there came cheatery in the nation at large and corruption among
officials and persons holding trusts. While men set such fashions in
private and official business, women set fashions of extravagance in
dress and living that added to the incentives to corruption. Faith in
moral considerations, or even in good impulses, yielded to general
distrust. National honor was thought a fiction cherished only by
hypocrites. Patriotism was eaten out by cynicism.

Thus was the history of France logically developed in obedience to
natural laws; such has, to a greater or less degree, always been the
result of irredeemable paper, created according to the whim or
interest of legislative assemblies rather than based upon standards of
value permanent in their nature and agreed upon throughout the entire
world. Such, we may fairly expect, will always be the result of them
until the fiat of the Almighty shall evolve laws in the universe
radically different from those which at present obtain.[87]