There remain now only the colonies of Tarſhiſh to be ſpoken of. And whereſoever elſe they ſeated themſelves, it is highly probable, that Tarteſſus, a city and adjoining country in Spain, and much celebrated by the ancients for its wealth, was a colony of Tarſhiſh. For the name Tarſhiſh is, by an eaſy and frequent change, turned into Tartiſh ; from whence Tarteſſus is regularly enough framed.
[…]Most persons are collectors at some periods of their lives. Some outgrow the habit; with others it becomes a mania; and with still others it is a lasting habit intelligently planned as one aspect of a study of a particular subject.
But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
These days almost any would-be academic can fabricate an irrational thesis, bolster it with bloviatingly portentous phraseology, and release it to the great churn of social media where, even though it can't withstand even a cursory logical examination, it is almost guaranteed to catch the imagination of those whose preconceived biases are already aligned with it.