However, the framing story is that these letters were actual documents given to the narrator by his guardian angel one night in 1728; for this reason, Paul Alkon suggests in his book "Origins of Futuristic Fiction" that "the first time-traveler in English literature is a guardian angel who returns with state documents from 1998 to the year 1728", although the book does not explicitly show how the angel obtained these documents.
Druga sodobnejša zgodba, ki vsebuje potovanje v prihodnost, je Mercierjevo "Leto 2440, sanje, če so kdaj bile kakšne" ("L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fût jamais"), utopični roman, v katerem je glavni lik prenešen v leto 2440.