August 16 Monday — Paine writes of Sam’s reading and of events in the evening:
August 16. He is reading Suetonius, which he already knows by heart — so full of the cruelties and licentiousness of imperial Rome.
This afternoon he began talking about Claudius,
“They called Claudius a lunatic,” he said, “but just see what nice fancies he had. He would go to the arena between times and have captives and wild beasts brought out and turned in together for his special enjoyment, Sometimes when there were no captives on hand he would say, “Well, never mind; bring out a carpenter.’ Carpentering around the arena wasn’t a popular job in those days. He went visiting once to a province and thought it would be pleasant to see how they disposed of criminals and captives in their crude, old-fashioned way, but there was no executioner on hand. No matter; the Emperor of Rome was in no hurry – he would wait. So he sat down and stayed there until an executioner came.”
I said, “How do you account for the changed attitude toward these things? We are filled with pity today at the thought of torture and suffering.”
“Ah! but that is because we have drifted that way and exercised the quality of compassion. Relax a muscle and it soon loses its vigor; relax that quality and in two generations—in one generation—we should be gloating over the spectacle of blood and torture just the same. Why, I read somewhere a letter written just before the Lisbon catastrophe in 1755 about a scene on the public square of Lisbon: A lot of stakes with the fagots piled for burning and heretics chained for burning. The square was crowded with men and women and children, and when those fires were lighted, and the heretics began to shriek and writhe, those men and women and children laughed so they were fairly beside themselves with the enjoyment of the scene. The Greeks don’t seem to have done these things. I suppose that indicates earlier advancement in compassion,”
Colonel Harvey and Mr. Duneka came up to spend the night. Mr. Clemens had one of his seizures during the evening. They come oftener and last longer. One last night continued for an hour and a half. I slept there [MTB 1516-17].
Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| George Harvey | Deal NJ | Aug 16, 1909 | No remarks (except |
| FA Duneka | New York | " " | (Both sober) |