Acquisitiveness
Robert Morris Ogden · 2005
Of this behavior Miss Whitley writes as follows: There seems to be a very deep-seated tendency in the human race to hoard. In common with the magpie, the squirrel, and the bear, children manifest a proclivity to help themselves to attractive, portable articles, to store them away, and later to visit the repository, contemplate, manipulate, and enjoy the contents. Undirected, this tendency may become dissipated in harmless and useless ways; misdirected, it may become a social nuisance; wisely directed it may serve to further scientific knowledge and to bring aesthetic pleasure to thousands.