Studies on Plato's Timaeus

Context:

Published in 1841, quoted at length at the end of the first half of the episode. Martin's sardonic passage about scholars 'setting sail in quest of Atlantis with a more or less heavy cargo of erudition, but without any compass except their imagination and caprice' landing everywhere from Africa to Sweden is read as a witty summary of the futility of trying to locate Atlantis geographically.