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.
Paris, 1884. 8vo.), tom. xxxiii. p. 427.