244 Proceedings of the Ohio Academy of Science 
professor of New Testament Language and Literature in the theological 
seminary. Eleven years later, through the interest and generosity 
of a friend who established a chair for the purpose, Prof. Wright was 
made head of the department of The Harmony of Science and Revela- 
tion. In 1907 he reached the retiring age and became Emeritus Pro- 
fessor in the same chair until his death. Thus he had twenty years of 
pastoral work, twenty-six years of seminary teaching and fourteen 
years as Emeritus Professor. 
When Mr. Wright began his first pastorate he set apart his mornings 
for scientific study, and they were as carefully preserved for that work 
as any student preserves his best hours to prepare for his class work. 
Part of his time was given to field work, a considerable portion to 
translation from Greek and German, work which greatly increased 
his proficiency in foreign languages. His studies took him through 
much theological and scientific literature, among which was Darwin’s 
“Origin of Species.”? He did very little writing for publication until 
he entered the second pastorate at Andover, but here the papers began 
to come at frequent intervals. A few dealt with glacial problems, 
many with theologic and philosophic questions, and even here there 
began the long series of papers which came from his pen expressing his 
belief that there was nothing in science to hinder one’s faith in God, 
Jesus and miracles. Although a strong champion of the theory of 
evolution, he was also a firm believer in evangelical Christianity. 
He believed in applying pragmatic tests to Christianity as much as to 
scientific truth, and this, much to the advantage of both. His scientific 
studies confirmed his religious conviction and theological conclusions. 
Open to truth from any source, research or revelation, he believed that 
no truth could be contradictory, since all was God’s, whether expressed 
in His works or word. 
While Prof. Wright’s scientific training was very meagre, his 
scientific interest was always to the front. The home of his first 
pastorate was on a sand plain with esker and kame connections. This 
was in the days when the glacial theory for the drift had only begun 
to make its way. Mr. Wright studied his immediate environment 
until he became certain that it was the work of a sub-glacial stream. 
His residence at Andover was also on a prominent glacial feature 
known as Indian Ridge. It had been popularly attributed to the work 
of the Indians, but Mr. Wright thought differently and in 1873 in the 
Bulletin of the Essex Institute he published his first geologic paper. 
It covered only three or four pages, but it interpreted the ridge as wholly 
of glacial origin and predicted the finding of its continuation for many 
miles to the north. His paper inspired observers, and within a few 
months he had several invitations to visit localities in line with Indian 
Ridge. These he followed up and established the explanation which 
he had suggested. 
These early radical interpretations of the drift and of many of its 
forms earned the approval of Asa Gray and Clarence King, and this 
placed Wright’s work in the front rank. He collaborated later with 
J. P. Leslie and with H. C. Lewis, of the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey 
