THE class of '81 has always had a reputation for brilliant scholarship in the Classics. A larger number of Second-Year Honors were taken by its members than had ever been taken before, and no succeeding class has equalled it in this respect. Naturally it was expected that 81's Commencement programme would show a long list of Honors, and a number of Highest Honors assigned. But now the announcement is made, that but one man in the class has received the certificate of Honors of the highest grade. It seems strange that there should have been such a falling off in scholarship as this result would presuppose. The marks of the last two years, in almost every case that we have ever heard of, have been higher than those of the first two. How then can the result we have be explained? Is the system or theory on which Final Honors are given different from that on which Second-Year Honors are given? It certainly looks so. And if we examine the present case in detail, as far as an outsider is allowed to, we find that the facts are as follows : One man in the Honor examinations obtained an average of marks five per cent higher than any one else; he certainly deserved Highest Honors. Now whether others deserved them too, or not, depends upon the answer to one question, and that is this : Have the Faculty a certain fixed per cent, the attainment of which, under any and all circumstances, gives Highest Honors; or is the per cent of the best man taken as the maximum, and all other per cents required to be within a certain number of marks of it, in order to gain the Highest Honors? In other words, is the scale on which Final Honors are given a fixed one, or does it vary with each class? The result of the last examinations tends strongly to show the scale is a variable one, and that it is the worst of misfortunes for a good scholar to be in the same class with an extraordinary scholar, such as '81 possesses.