The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-06-09
THE HARMONY OF NATURE
Delivered by Miss Ida Lewis Floyd
Valedictorian of the class of
1911, at the st. Augustine
High School Commence


Mature! Great Parent! whose un.
ceasing hand
Rolls round the season of the
changeful year,
HOW mighty, how majestic are thy
works.
With what a pleasing dread thew
~ fill the soul
THAT sees astOnished, and astonished
sings!"
Truly is the human mind overpow-
cred, with the slightest contemplation
OF Nature, so lovely, so commanding,
as she sways her boundless scepter
over earth, sky and sea, and blends
her innumerable components into one
celestial whole. Everywhere we see
her almighty hand stretched forth, al
ways to remind us she is mistress;
her unchanged way is law; no earthly
power dare try a violation of the
statutes she lays down; she is the
ordained power to rule all space and
in her dominion all must bow in
Epison, till our earth seems one con-
sorted harmony in which birds, voic-
es, instruments, winds and waters all
agree.
That Nature, whose mysteries man
has tried often to unfold is, alas,
our only perfect model, and is that
xgreat spirit which pervades us all,
making each strive to conquer, to
rule, and to make a unit of the world
as she has done. We are merely
Knockers of our infinite ruler and in
this do we deserve our greatest Iaur-
els, for using the words of one of
our masters,
I'm contemplation of created things,
BY steps we may ascend to God. -
- AS we look about us in our self
assumed grandeur, how seldom,
though, do we stop for an interview
with Nature and observe for our
selves her harmonious workmanship.
No, rather than f1ndn these unrivaled
beauties for ourselves, from their
original source, we bow to, and term
immoral those few gifted men,
called poets, who have shown us with
the pen of the genius that which our
wanton blindness has hidden from
the view of commoner beings. Where
as, if we only stop, observe and
think, we each can see the marvellous
hharmony of Nature upon which every
human joy is founded. There is
nothing that pleases the senses of
man but has some form of harmony
in it, and the human being seems,
indeed, the blesserd creature whoom
Nature has striven most to please.
The harmony of sound we call music;
the harmony of vision We call beauty;
the harmony of human feeling and
sympathy we call love, and surely,
with these three delights, music,
sbeauty and love, man must reach his
happiest state of peace.
But, away with these more ethereal
ornaments of nature, and let us look
for awhile on life, that unlimited, all
embracing word over which so many
Millions sigh and laugh, mourn and
ISJOICS. OOluS dS opSSIdtOl VI O"A
great universe and see if even life
ITSELF in whatever case We apply it,
does not correspond with all Natures
other schemes of harmony.
Let us divide the life of man, as we
do the year, into the four great sea-
sons.
First comes the period of child
hood, which we shall call spring, that
time of youth, mirth, hope and glad
ness, in which every promising SYM
boil joins in the song of freshness
and anticipation. AS the trees put
a forth new buds and leaves for shade
in coming summer, send up the sap
into all their branches, for growth;
as the farmer plants his seed into the
ground that he may have harvest in
an approaching season; as the very
days increase in length and warmth,
and in a thousand other ways all
nature uses her spring for prepare
ton and increases, so the child each
day grows larger in mind and body,
storing strength, will-power and in
tellect for use in his future life.
The world is new to him; he claps
his hands at every gain, and his ten
der heart shrinks from each new
sorrow, as the young plant droops in
the first storm it experiences. Is not
youth in whatever form We put 1t?
But it, like all other charms, cannot
last always and we soon see the bud
at its full perfection, too beautiful to
remain unchanged, burst out into a
lovely flower, spreading its fragrance
far and wide, as the child whose
mind becomes we'll developed, grows
4 up and enters upon the broad field of
life to fill his mission. This is sum-