The statistics on rank, published in yesterday's CRIMSON, may be taken as a criterion of the seriousness of a student's work during the four years of his college life. The varying percentages of marks in the five grades show a striking and gratifying tendency toward more earnest work in each succeeding year. In the Freshman year less than 16 per cent, of the marks assigned to '89 reached A, while almost 3 per cent. fell into grade E. A steady increase in the A's brings the per cent. to more than 22 in the Senior year, The E's, on the other hand, diminished by almost one-half in the sophomore year, and again in the Junior year by more than one-half, in the senior year remaining about stationery. The C's decrease steadily, though more slowly, from 36.8 to 31.8. This shows that the upper classmen not only take more pains to avoid failure in their course, but are less satisfied with medium work. Almost 60 per cent, of the Seniors' marks were included in the highest grades, and less than 9 in the two lowest: while 39 and 24 were the two corresponding figures for the Freshman marks. The extra courses are less regular in the distribution of marks, but show the same growth of seriousness in work. The A's and B's are moke than doubled, and the lower marks fall off proportionately. The exception is in the case of the E's, which show a sudden increase in the Senior year. This is due probably to men's attempting in their last year to take more courses than they really have time for, and being obliged to drop them near the end of the term. In those courses in which they continue their work, it is of far superior quality to that done in the Freshman year. This shows that the serious purposes of college life are brought more and more clearly into view toward the end of a student's courses. It coincides with the statistics of dropped men's returning to their classes, to prove that men do not come to Harvard to loaf.