-"It made immense talk next day, when Father Peter paid Solomon Isaacs in gold and left the rest of the money with him at interest. Also, there was a pleasant change; many people called at the house to congratulate him, and a number of cool old friends became kind and friendly again; and, to top all, Marget was invited to a party." I immediately thought how true a statement this is on human nature. This is. without a doubt. the way people today would act. I have heard that winning the lottery can ruin every friendship and relationship in the lucky winner's life. The key word here-greed.

-Then, after the astrologer proved the guilt of Father Peter, "No friends came to condole with her, and none were expected; an unsigned note withdrew her invitation to the party." Even the boys "wanted to go and see Marget and show friendliness for her, but our parents were afraid of offending the community and wouldn't let us." Maybe this is the "judgement" (see Twain Quotes)Twain felt neglected of in Maui.

A young Samuel Clemens

-Young Satan, when speaking of the moral sense, states, "when a brute inflicts pain he does it innocently; it is not wrong; for him there is no such thing as wrong. And he does not inflict pain for the pleasure of inflicting it-only man does that. Inspired by that mongrel Moral Sense of his!" This is what makes choosing the right and the just all so powerful. 'Tis better to have sinned than to never have had the choice to sin.

-"In any community, big or little, there is always a fair proportion of people who are not malicious or unkind by nature." I sure hope so!

-"Here is a red spider, not so big as a pin's head. Can you imagine an elephant being interested in him-caring whether he is happy or isn't, or whether he is wealthy or poor." Upon my research I found an interesting parallel to this quote. Twain had become fond of a little girl named Dorothy Quick. She remembered the sadness that fell upon Twain after they witnessed an elephant performing upon cues from its master. She remembered that he felt "sad to see anything brought down from its high estate-or something meant to be great that doesn't know its own power."

-"You perceive," Satan said, "that you have made continual progress. Cain did his murder with a club; the Hebrews did their murders with javelins and swords; the Greeks and Romans added protective armorthe Christian has added guns and gunpowder." Although the point here was to criticize Christians for their timeless wars, I saw a connection to The Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I interpreted one of Hawthorne's messages in the story to be that technology makes it easier to be swayed from what is truly important. Even further, technology could be at its penultimate but it is still the character, the courage within that holds the truly virtuous to remain constant. One would think that Christians would have this sense of courage but Twain obviously did not.

-"They hanged the lady, and I threw a stone at her, although in my heart I was sorry for her; but all were throwing stones and each was watching his neighbor, and if I had not done as the others did it would have been noticed and spoken of. Satan burst out laughing." Does Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson ring a bell? A connection is certainly found here with Emerson when he writes, "For non-conformity the world whips you with displeasure."

-"Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought-a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities." Sweet dreams!