322 = The Ancestry of Nasua. [April, 
given it by the setting of the factors denominated “ facts.” So it 
was with Germany’s great poet. But here comes a nice distinc- 
tion between the condemnable and the commendable, between 
romancing in science and the scientific imagination. Goethe’s 
guesses were neither blunders nor vagaries. His theory of the 
genesis of the flower, of the vertebrate origin of the skull, and 
his forecast of the doctrine of descent, were all marvelous births, 
but legitimately begotten, the offspring of pure scientific imagina- 
tion. As in advance of the thought then in vogue, they seemed 
prematurely brought into the light, and for a time were nurslings 
of unpromising vitality. 
‘But a truth thus evolved finds no similitude in the sparx struck 
out by flint and steel. Nor is such truth premature, as to its 
ratiocination, as would appear could we but time its gestation. I 
think it is always the outcome of “ unconscious cerebration.” 
The mind of the seer has been deeply thinking on generic lines. 
As first expressed such a truth may be ore-like—rich, but crude— 
and it may have to wait for the facts which shall serve as faggots 
for the crucible. 
Having in the article “ Coati-Mondi and its Cousins,” with per- 
haps seeming insufficient warrant, asserted for Nasua a quadru- 
manous kinship, now that the faggots have been got in plenty, 
why not smelt the ore? Or, dropping metaphors, let us $° in 
direct quest of Nasua’s ancestry, even its biogenesis, upon rea- 
soning lines. j 
_ In tracing the pedigree of some regal line, perhaps we should 
reach a very ancient Norman stirp. But however ancient, it 
~~ would be the Norman of civilization, not his savage progenitor O! 
_ the Palxolithic age. This would be as far up the stream of the 
past as we could sail. So with our Nasua, we must stop at the 
origin of the Educabilia, the quasi intelligent animals, those 
_ namely which have the cerebrum or frontal brain relatively large 
and roofing, or overlapping thé cerebellum or small hinder brain. 
S I1. First then, as to that quadrumanous alliance of Coati ; on 
-what line of reasoning may the genealogy be traced? My first! 
impression of this fact came to me as a conviction of the imagr 
nation. Idid not then, it is so long ago, know anything of the 
_ modern doctrine of “ unconscious cerebration.” I had so studied 
_ the living animal as to fairly know its ways, and I came to ens 
"pect, as an inheritance, the monkey strain, as the breeders would 
