It is not strange that some thinkers and writers, seeing these unquestionable benefits of Credit even within the peculiar sphere of Money itself, have come, like Herbert Spencer and many more, to think and teach that Credit might answer _all_ the purposes of money. Credit _does_ take the place of money in part. Can it take the place of money entirely? Let us see. We have defined Credit as _a right to demand something of somebody_, and Debt as _an obligation to render something to somebody_; the denominations of Money are certainly needful in order _to measure_ this right or obligation; and how can the denominations of money be established or maintained at all separate from the use of _some_ money itself as a circulating medium? Moreover, great as is the undoubted power of Credit, vast as are these five advantages from its current use, still, each particular piece or form of Credit waits for something beyond itself; it waits for its own _extinction_ in future time; which can only come about in one of three ways, (a) by _set-off_ against another debt with or without a balance, (b) by _renewal_ which creates a new debt and extinguishes the old, (c) by its _payment_ in money; and now how can these extinctions come about without the current use of some money, at least to settle the balances at the clearing-house? Furthermore, there have always been heretofore in all commercial countries longer or shorter periods, called "crises" or "panics," during which there was a popular reluctance to accept in exchange the ordinary instruments of Credit. Money, and much of it, was then found to be indispensable. Indeed the very advantages of Credit itself, which have now been explained at length, are dependent on this, that there be alongside of it to sustain and limit it, _a current and legal measure of Services in metallic form_, in whose denominations Values may be reckoned, in whose coins the balances of Credit may be struck, and whose presence secured everywhere by natural laws alone may enable _fulfilment_ to join hand in hand with _promise_. If ever Credit should try to usurp the whole domain of Money, a tolerable standard of Value or measure of Services would be no longer possible, Credit itself would lose its foothold, and the vast balloon of Promise, sailing for awhile through the blue, the joy of projectors and the wonder of credulous spectators, would of a sudden descend to the earth collapsed and ruined.