appointments the president endeavored to express the principles he had advocated from the beginning:

(1) A chair must be filled with the best possible men."

(2) The idea which has prevailed in the university that the professorships should be divided with some equality and fairness among different denominations was entirely a wrong one; the only proper tests for fitness being neither political bias nor sectarian affiliations, but simply good character and intellectual superiority. He thus solved the sectarian problem. Had the old idea of division among different sects been adhered to, the difficulties arising from necessarily uneven distribution would have been endless, and the result would have been a stultification of the whole State university system. Since President Tappan's day occasional jealousies have appeared, but only as transitory phases scarcely noticeable in the general progress of liberal views. In these later days it may be said that when a person is appointed to a profes sorship the last qualification thought of is denominational connection. More properly, denominational connections are not considered in the list of qualifications. This does not mean that a candidate's attitude toward Christianity and morality is not considered of any importance. In the very earliest years of the university it was announced that there was danger in sectarian prejudices, and equal danger in an entire disregard for the professed religion of the people, who as a free people had almost with unanimity avowed themselves Christians. In the wise administration of affairs by successive presidents since 1852 an evident care has been taken to call to positions of trust in the university men whose morality is unquestionable, and whose Christian principles furnish worthy examples to pupils intrusted to their charge.1

All through the university was felt the quickening influence of the president's faith and hope. Professors and students seemed to catch the fire of enthusiasm and all entered upon their work with a renewed zeal and unappeased interest. The internal affairs of the college were administered with a broad, free spirit, suited to the life of a great university. Old college customs and petty traditions were gradually put aside to make room for newer and larger ideas. Everything, of course, was not accomplished, but a great deal was.

1 President Tappan on leaving the university thus referred to his policy and practice in regard to appointments: "One thing is certain, no appointment has since been made with any reference to denominational connection. After Dr. Brunuow reached Ann Arbor, I, for the first time, asked him whether he was a Catholic or a Protestant, when he informed me that he was a Lutheran Protestant. Dr. Haven, who brought Professor Winchell's name before the board of regents, affirmed that he was ignorant of his denominational connection. Professor Frieze was known to be an Episcopalian, but was elected through the instrumentality of Professor Boise, himself a Baptist. Dr. Ford and Professor Wood were elected while we were entirely ignorant of their denominational connection. Messrs. Peck and Trowbridge (from West Point) were elected without any knowledge on our part of their religious predilections. Mr. White, although known to be an attendant of the Episcopal church, was elected on the recommendation of the Congregational president and many others of the Congregational clergymen and professors at New Haven."

I doubt if in the sixth decade of this century any other university in the land was administered in so broad, free, and generous a spirit as this was under Dr. Tappan aud his large-minded colleagues in the faculties.'

But there are things more important than actual and immediate achievement. Under his guidance the university broke away from old moorings and, as time has gone on, it has steadily progressed untrammeled by old ties, unhampered by old burdens, the impedimenta of thoughtless conservatism and prejudice.

In accordance with his suggestions the dormitories were done away with, most of them in 1856-'57. He had been op posed in this by many who could see no advance ment in innovation and to whom a college without a dormitory was not a college. But the result of the change was good. To a certain extent the system of espionage is a necessary concomitant of dormitories, and their abolition was the beginning of a broader and more liberal method of discipline. The charm of dormitory life-for such a charm there doubtless is-was exchanged for the ordinary life of an ordinary lodger. The result was twofold at least. In the first place, it prevented to a great extent concerted attempts at practical jokes and more serious follies of college life, which do not add to proficiency in studies or to the dignity of young manhood, and, secondly, it made the students feel to some extent that they were not a distinct and privileged order of beings, but were of the same clay as the rest of the world around them. The present theory and practice of the university are that the students are citizens of Ann Arbor while they keep their residence there, and that from them are expected the same good conduct and general demeanor as from anyone else. The importance of this theory in university life it is hard to overestimate. The difficulty lies in discovering why so many higher institutions of learning still cling to the media val cloister system, with its necessarily attendant disciplinary methods. Of course another result of the dissolution of the dormitories was not only to turn into the treasury money which would have been needed to support them, but also to give needed accommodation to professors for class-room work.

Perhaps the most important innovation, however, in the literary department during these years was the establishment of the scientific course. The legislature in April, 1851, had directed that the regents prepare a course of study in the university for admission to which the ancient languages should not be a requirement. The validity of this act under the new constitution is at least doubtful, but it has continued to have weight as an expression of popular opinion.

Said President Tappan :

We see a university faculty giving instruction in a college or gymnasium. Our first object will be to perfect this gymnasi um. To this end we propose a scientific course parallel to the classical course. There will be comprised in it, besides other branches, civil engineering, astronomy, with the use of an observatory, and the ap

1 University of Michigan, Semicentennial, p. 173,

plication of chemistry to agriculture and the industrial arts generally. The entire course will run through four years, in which the students will be distributed into four classes, similar the to classical course. Students who pursue the full scientific course we shall graduate as bachelors of science. In addition to this we shall allow students to pursue special courses and give them at their departure certificates of their proficiency.1

It will be noticed that this means not the establishment of a scientific school separated from the college proper, as is the Sheffield School at Yale, but the establishment of a parallel course of four years, with requirements for admission as nearly equal to those for the classical course as circumstances would permit. On substantially this basis the university has been developed. The advantage of such a compact system over one which involves a certain amount of dissipation of energy has been of immense value in the growth and expansion of the institution, limited in its methods, as it always has been, by the need of an adequate income. The establishment of this course was a mark of great insight. Dr. Tappan found the means for making the university the people's university, where every boy, whatever his tastes, need not be crammed into a strait-jacket in the shape of a rigid classical course, where each particular day and each particular year had their stated modicum of Latin and Greek and mathematics. We must remember that in 1852 the advantages of a scientific education were not so apparent as in these days. Nor must one gather the idea that the president was averse to classical education or linguistic training. On the contrary, as before suggested, the classical course was made the very backbone of the institution by the appointment of such eminent teachers as Professors Frieze and Boise. The first requirements for the new (1852–253) course were not very high; they consisted of English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and algebra through equations of the first degree. A "partial course" was announced, as follows:

Those who do not desire to become candidates for a degree may be admitted to any part of the classical or scientific course for such length of time as they may choose in case they exhibit satisfactory evidence of such proficiency as will enable them to proceed advantageously with the studies of the class which they propose to

enter.2

This course was continued during President Tappan's administration and has during President Angell's administration again seen the 1 Quoted in Historical and Scientific Sketch of the University of Michigan, by Charles Kendall Adams.

In 1860 the scientific course had the following requirements for admission: "Candidates for admission to this course will be examined in the following studies, namely:

"(1) Mathematics: Arithmetic, algebra in the simple rules, fractions, equations of the first and second degrees, and radicals of the second degree; geometry, the first and third books of Davies's Legendre or an equivalent in other authors.

"(2) Physics: The following subjects as contained in the elementary works on natural philosophy, properties of matter, laws of motion, laws of falling bodies, mechanical powers, hydrodynamics, and pneumatics.

“(3) English grammar and geography." (Quoted in History of University of Michigan, by Elizabeth M. Farrand.)

light with the provision that the person entering thus to pursue selected studies without becoming a candidate for a degree or passing the entrance examinations required for any stated course must have completed his twenty-first year, a provision which is presumed to preclude the appearance of immature students bent on the pursuit of a dilettant course of study.

The classical course was almost fully developed during this administration. In 1861 the requirements in Greek reached about the limits they have since maintained; for, though the university has developed in other directions, and though preparatory schools of the highest excellence now dot the State, scarcely any addition has been made for the last 28 years to the Greek required for admission, and the classical course has in consequence remained somewhat below the standard of similar courses in like institutions of the country.

In 1856 a chemical laboratory was built, the central pcrtion of the building as it now stands. The school of pharmacy was not created until some time after this, the students working in the laboratory being nearly all members of the literary department. In 1861 it was found necessary to make an addition to the building in order to meet the wants of the students. In 1855-56 a school of engineering was also established and a new course of engineering introduced.

Early in the history of the university petitions were sent to the regents, asking for the establishment of a department of law. At the time the medical department was organized the subject was discussed and it was decided that the existing conditions would not allow the organization of another department. December 21, 1858, a committee of the board was appointed to consider the advisability of such an undertaking, and this committee began a thorough investigation of the whole subject. They found in the whole country but few law schools at all adequately equipped and manned. And upon their recommendation the law school was established as a separate department of the university, with a corps of three lecturers. In March, 1859, James V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley and Charles I. Walker, were appointed to the professorships, which were in the same year given the titles of "Marshall professorship," "Jay professorship," and "Kent professorship." October 3, 1859, the law school was formally opened. The lectures were first delivered in the old chapel. An appropriation of $2,000 was made for books, and there was scarcely a place to put them when purchased. The general library was in need of room and a chapel of larger capacity was needed. The plan was therefore hit upon of erecting a building which would accommodate the law school and the general library and furnish besides a room for the holding of devotional exercises. In 1863 such a building was completed, which continued to be used for these various purposes for many years, not being devoted exclusively to the law department until the completion of the general library building in the