John Woodward

agency

The superintendence and agency of Providence in the natural world.

Allision

The boisterous allision of the sea.

Blight

[This vapor] blasts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is sometimes injurious even to man.

Boisterous

The heat becomes too powerful and boisterous for them.

Bunch

Bunching out into a large round knob at one end.

Canvass

I have made careful search on all hands, and canvassed the matter with all possible diligence.

Cast

This . . . casts a sulphureous smell.

It will not run thin, so as to cast and mold.

Gray with a cast of green.

Catastrophe

The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw.

Compendious

More compendious and expeditious ways.

Composure

Various composures and combinations of these corpuscles.

Conformation

A structure and conformation of the earth.

Consolidation

The consolidation of the marble and of the stone did not fall out at random.

Coverture

Protected by walls or other like coverture.

Cumulate

Shoals of shells, bedded and cumulated heap upon heap.

Curious

It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history.

Decrement

Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement.

Depose

Additional mud deposed upon it.

Devolution

The devolution of earth down upon the valleys.

Disclose

The shells being broken, . . . the stone included in them is thereby disclosed and set at liberty.

Dislocate

After some time the strata on all sides of the globe were dislocated.

Disseminate

A nearly uniform and constant fire or heat disseminated throughout the body of the earth.

Diver

Divers and fishers for pearls.

Dry

The water of the sea, which formerly covered it, was in time exhaled and dried up by the sun.

Exit

Forcing the water forth through its ordinary exits.

Figment

It carried rather an appearance of figment and invention . . . than of truth and reality.

Fugitive

The me more tender and fugitive parts, the leaves . . . of vegatables.

Hit

Corpuscles, meeting with or hitting on those bodies, become conjoined with them.

Impress

The impresses of the insides of these shells.

Increment

The seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment of animal and vegetable bodies.

Insinuate

The water easily insinuates itself into, and placidly distends, the vessels of vegetables.

Interpose

The common Father of mankind seasonably interposed his hand, and rescues miserable man.

Limpid

Springs which were clear, fresh, and limpid.

Look

My subject does not oblige me to look after the water, or point forth the place where to it is now retreated.

Obviate

To lay down everything in its full light, so as to obviate all exceptions.

Precipitation

The hurry, precipitation, and rapid motion of the water, returning . . . towards the sea.

Preposterous

The method I take may be censured as preposterous, because I thus treat last of the antediluvian earth, which was first in the order of nature.

Prevalent

This was the most received and prevalent opinion.

Punctulate

The studs have their surface punctulated, as if set all over with other studs infinitely lesser.

Recent

The ancients were of opinion, that a considerable portion of that country [Egypt] was recent, and formed out of the mud discharged into the neighboring sea by the Nile.

Relish

A theory, which, how much soever it may relish of wit and invention, hath no foundation in nature.

Remiss

Its motion becomes more languid and remiss.

Repose

Pebbles reposed in those cliffs amongst the earth . . . are left behind.

Rive

Freestone rives, splits, and breaks in any direction.

Run

Sussex iron ores run freely in the fire.

Sample

I design this but for a sample of what I hope more fully to discuss.

Sand

That finer matter, called sand, is no other than very small pebbles.

Semblance

Only semblances or imitations of shells.

Shiver

The natural world, should gravity once cease, . . . would instantly shiver into millions of atoms.

Sluggish

Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself.

Sort

Nor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the earth, and minerals with minerals.

Still

He having a full sway over the water, had power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it.

Stint

I shall not go about to extenuate the latitude of the curse upon the earth, or stint it only to the production of weeds.

Structure

Want of insight into the structure and constitution of the terraqueous globe.

Subordinate

The several kinds and subordinate species of each are easily distinguished.

Supine

He became pusillanimous and supine, and openly exposed to any temptation.

Sureness

For more sureness he repeats it.

Surmise

This change was not wrought by altering the form or position of the earth, as was surmised by a very learned man, but by dissolving it.

Tabular

Nodules . . . that are tabular and plated.

Terrestrial

The terrestrial parts of the globe.

Translocation

There happened certain translocations at the deluge.

Umbrage

The opinion carries no show of truth nor umbrage of reason on its side.

Undertake

I dare undertake they will not lose their labor.

Unhandsome

I can not admit that there is anything unhandsome or irregular . . . in the globe.

Variegate

The shells are filled with a white spar, which variegates and adds to the beauty of the stone.