Commonplace Book

'"Children,' Millie said, 'are the world's great materialists. The great 'natural' market for tin and plastic. The great 'natural' cult of Epicureans." ... "we notice that they'd rather be outside than inside, and we attribute some glorious perception, some sixth sense to them because of it. It's not fair to them. We can't give them anything believing that. It's just that everything is new, and whatever is new is fascinating, like shoes and book-bags. If they'd rather live in the country than the city, it's not because they're ... closer to God! It's because country things are better toys than city things. And even that's pure in a way we don't quite understand; uncluttered, somehow, accepting the world at face value. I mean, look at the connoisseurs of wine, look at the perfume sniffers and the soup tasters, look at the diamond merchants, people who spend their lives dealing in the learned, subtle differences and still never get away from things. Because in a way it is a higher perception, don't you see, not to be able to tell the difference between a diamond and a piece of broken glass."'

from Descend Again by Janet Burroway (Chapter IV)