It is little wonder, when the drudgery has done its work and the sorry show is over, and the victim of the System is face to face with his empty soul at last, if in his earlier years at least he seems overfond to some of us of receiving medals, honours, and Valedictories for what he might have been and of flourishing a Degree for what he has missed.
"The Lost Art of Reading"
Gerald Stanley Lee
This oration was transferred to the Commencement about the year 1798, when the Masters' Valedictories had fallen into disuse; and being in English, gave a new interest to the exercises of the day.
"A Collection of College Words and Customs"
Benjamin Homer Hall
The last Masters' exercises were performed in the year 1843. At Yale College, from 1787 onwards, there were no Masters' Valedictories, nor syllogistic disputes in Latin, and in 1793 there were no Master's exercises at all.
"A Collection of College Words and Customs"
Benjamin Homer Hall