"Nay, fly to altars, there they'll talk you dead;
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Ib. pp. 624, 625.

* * * * *

The Emperor Alexander of Russia is said to have declared himself
"un accident heureux." The expression occurs in Mad. de Staël's
_Allemagne_, § xvi.:--

"Mais quand dans un état social le bonbeur lui-même n'est,
pour ainsi dire, _qu'un accident heureux_ ... le patriotisme a
peu de persévérance."

* * * * *

Gibbon, _Decl. and Fall_ (Lond. 1838. 8vo.), i. 134.:--

"His (T. Antoninus Pius') reign is marked by the rare
advantage of furnishing very few materíals for history;
which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes,
follies, and misfortunes of mankind."

Gibbon's first volume was published in 1776, and Voltaire's _Ingenii_
in 1767. In the latter we find--

"En effet, l'historie n'est que le tableau des crimes
et des malheurs."--_Oeuvres de Voltaire_ (ed. Beuchot.