238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



and of his enthusiasm for his discoveries. Those who knew him 

 only as a scientist, had but little conception of the spirit that actuated 

 him. His work was not a series of merely intellectual achievements, 

 but back of it all lay the feeling that he was bringing something 

 bright and interesting from the outside world to adorn the home. 



His affection for kin extended to his friends. His relations with 

 Prof. Baird were almost those of a son. His anxiety and distress at 

 Prof Baird's last illness found expression in all the letters he wrote 

 at that time. As is common with such natures, his sense of justice 

 was keen, though no instance can be shown in which his indignation 

 was not excited by the general sense of wrong implied in the situa- 

 tion rather than by any personal feeling. 



Dr. Ryder's religious training was that of the strict oi-thodox 

 Christian faith as expressed in the teachings of the Mennonites. 

 His paternal grandmother who directed his education was a woman 

 of deep piety. For the faith of his parents he always entertained 

 the profoundest respect, and at least toward the latter part of his 

 life was inclined to return to it. At the age of eighteen he studied 

 the Bible closely ; and, ever afterward, no matter how limited his 

 travelling effects, a copy of the New Testament was always among 

 them. Though, as shown by his letters, he departed from the ten- 

 ets of his early education, one cannot doubt that he retained all the 

 force of a severe mental and moral discipline that such teaching 

 implies. He was faithful in friendship ; singularly frank and sin- 

 cere in disposition ; and disliked violent language, dispute or critic- 

 ism. He was always severe to himself, but sacrificing in spirit to 

 those whom he loved. 



While a Jessup Fund student he became a devoted listener to the 

 Rev. Mr. Mangasarian, an Armenian preacher, who, at that time, 

 held a pulpit in a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, but who 

 afterward became a leader in an independent organization allied to 

 the Society of Ethical Culture. In speaking of Mangasarian in one 

 of his letters, Dr. Ryder uses the following language : " He has all 

 the charm of the finished orator combined with rationalism and 

 advanced evolution." Ryder greatly admired Emerson. He spoke 

 of him as " the sanest man of the nineteenth century." In writing 

 to a friend who was in mental distress, he advised him to read Emer- 

 son. He carried his admiration even to matters of scientific import. 

 In his last paper he quotes from this writer the saying : " To a 

 sound judgment the most abstract truth is the most practical." He 



