BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN ADAM RYDER. 6<S7 



a pulpit in a Presbyterian church iu Philadelphia, but who afterwards 

 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 Emerson. 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 was much influenced by the teachings of the 

 Stoics. "I would strongly advise you," said he to a friend, "to get 

 hold of the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, when you are most provoked 

 or vexed in spirit, and take their lessons to heart. Epictetus will do 

 equally well, only I think Marcus is calculated to humble and content 

 a man." His letters contain many expressions of trust in an Infinite 

 Beneficence, and he would have agreed with Epictetus as to "Whither 

 dost thou tend after death, that is to nothing dreadful, but to a place 

 from whence thou earnest, to things friendly and akin to thee." 



We admire Ryder not so much for what he accomplished as for the 

 indomitable spirit that actuated him. With imperfect equipment, with 

 engrossing occupation, and — for much of his intellectual life, at least — 

 with impaired health, he attempted the solution of the most difficult 

 problems. It is not for us to consider in what degree he succeeded. 

 Had Bacon, Franklin, or Darwin died at 43, or had their days been 

 absorbed, as his had been, in cares and the routine of task work, 

 how much less would have been their achievements ! It is enough for 

 us to know that we are studying in Ryder's life phenomena of a mind 

 of the first order, and that we have lost by his death one of the brightest 

 of the group of workers to which he belonged. 



