taken seriously at the time. They
are not all realized even now; but they show the breadth of his
conception of a real university. He emphasized openly the correspondence
between the Michigan and the German systems of education, and declared
that;

It is the cardinal object to make this correspondence as complete
as possible. Hence, it is proposed to make the studies here pursued
not only introductory to professional studies, and to studies in
the higher branches of science and literature, but also to embrace
such studies as are more particularly adapted to agriculture, the
mechanic arts, and to the industrial arts generally. Accordingly, a
distinct scientific course has been added, running parallel to the
classical course, extending through the same term of four years,
and embracing the same number of classes with the same
designations.

These ideas he put into practice at once and Michigan became the first
university in the country to introduce practical scientific courses
within the regular arts curriculum, and, following Harvard by only a few
years, was the second university in the country to break away from the
accepted hard and fast course in which the humanities were the beginning
and the end of education, acknowledging the claims of science by
granting the degree of Bachelor of Science. He was likewise a pioneer in
other ways; for the University was the first to recognize the needs of
special students who, while not seeking a degree, were anxious to pursue
studies in special subjects.

President Tappan was wise enough not to seek the establishment of his
grand object at once, but he did announce in that first catalogue that
he proposed--

at as early a day as practicable, to open courses of lectures for
those who have graduated at this or other institutions, and for
those who in other ways have made such preparation as may enable
them to attend upon them with advantage.

Here was the germ of a Graduate School, though for many years the
lectures were more in evidence in the catalogue of the University than
in the class room. He was sufficiently practical to realize that the
collegiate course, "with its schoolmaster methods and discipline," of
his time must be retained for a period, though he aimed eventually to
transfer its work to the high school, gradually swinging the University
to "true university methods, free and manly habits of stu