Three Lectures Delivered Before the University of Oxford, in Michaelmas Term, 1852 (1852)

In the future, a group of scientists plan to time-travel to Eden to prevent the fall of man, and thus put an end to all evil and disease in the world. At first, they can only go back about 200 years at once. They visit the California Gold Rush and Colonial America. They are pulled forward unexpectedly to their future and forced to fight in a senseless war. They break free and take off, finding a stowaway with a device for traveling further back. Thus, they meet Leonardo Da Vinci and discuss humanism. But, by mistake, they take off without the stowaway and his device. The lever jams, bringing them to Martin Luther and an argument over faith. By adding alcohol to the fuel, they manage to arrive at Camelot and finally, ancient Jerusalem, where they at last realize the real answer-the true end and goal of their mission.