It has always been one of the sources of the University's strength that this fact was understood, almost from the first, and that the claims of true scholarship and research have been increasingly recognized. It has been shown that in its first years Michigan was to all intents a replica in the West of the older and conservative colleges of the East; though there was a certain idealism and progressive spirit that tempered even then this recognition of long-established precedent. The West was liberal and disposed to create its own institutions upon a new basis, so that when the new ideals in education began to make themselves felt, about the middle of the nineteenth century, Michigan was ready for them. With the coming of Dr. Tappan the movement, already foreshadowed by the Legislature in the very terms under which the University was organized, gained a new impetus and effective guidance, and it was not long before a remarkable series of constructive measures in the interest of higher education began. Most of them have been mentioned elsewhere, but it may not be amiss to suggest some of them once more; such as the emphasis on modern science, with the parallel classical and scientific courses within the academic department; the wide range of elections eventually introduced; the early inauguration of professional and graduate schools; the introduction of seminary and laboratory methods; the admission of women; the diploma system of admission from the high schools; and the recognition of the claims of special students. Until within recent years also, the University had no marking system. The students were merely "passed," "not passed," or "conditioned." This undoubtedly stimulated interest in study and scholarship for its own sake in the case of many students, though, in the absence of any of the usual college honors it encouraged a certain level of mediocrity in others. The change in the system and the introduction of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and similar organizations after 1907 resulted in a marked alteration in the attitude toward study and has undoubtedly raised appreciably the general level of scholarship. Thus, though the University throughout its whole history necessarily has had to recognize the first claims of the students for instruction, often of a somewhat elementary character, there have always been influences which have kept the ideals of higher scholarship constantly in view. In the older days the idea of research in its modern sense was hardly understood; but as the atmosphere of European learning began to pervade American academic life the double function of a true university came to be more clearly recognized. Not only were facilities for research developed, but the scientific spirit, which refused to accept the limitations long established, and sought new truths, or new interpretations of old principles, became the order of the day.