There but for the grace of God go I

1987: 'There but for the grace of God go I'

One November evening in 1987, a deadly fire broke out at King's Cross, London's busiest Underground station. It started in a machine room under a wooden escalator and turned into a huge fireball that engulfed the ticket hall and filled it with smoke.
The smoke could be seen coming out of the station's street-level entrances as screaming passengers ran out.
Altogether 31 people were killed, among them a fireman and one man who was not identified until January 2004.
Hundreds of commuters witnessed the tragedy unfold and many wrote to us to tell their story.
Were you a survivor of the King's Cross fire?

The tube journey [to King's Cross] was typically 20 minutes from Barons Court and I would normally have been on the very escalator that caught fire, when fire broke out, reportedly at 7.30pm. I remember a cold shiver going through me when I saw the news flash around midnight that night and again on seeing the burnt out remains of that escalator - my escalator - on the front page of the morning newspapers.
The thick hanging smell of the fire lingered in the tube station passageways for months afterwards.
There but for the grace of God go I.
Andrew Pryde, UK

hanching chung hcsimonl@gmail.com	11/30/05
to me

記: 'There but for the grace of God go I'

這兩天， 93歲的喬志高先生在人間副刊發表『哥大與我── 久已忘卻但又耿耿於懷的三年』，慶祝夏志清教授（C. T. ）的學術成就。多談它轉行到該校念國際公法的三年時光中的師生關切和感想。他節語引了一句英國慣用語，或許值得記下：

「 …….前後相差二十年，我跟C.T. 同樣來到「懇德堂」，可是我拐錯了一個彎。

     我於是舉杯向C.T.致敬道： There but for the grace of God, go I.（若不是靠上帝的恩典，眼前的這位就是在下。）可是，我緊跟著說，這句話如果由 C.T.對我來講，應該更為正確！）」

There but for the grace of God, go I. 經常用在眼觀他人遭禍，感謝上蒼，受害者非我，讓我得以逃過一劫。譬如說，1987 年11月某日倫敦大地鐵站 King's Cross 發生大火， BBC在「歷史之今天」之標題為 : 'There but for the grace of God go I' 。有人讀者寫他們原本應在當時去該站的…..

據英國詞語網站，這句「天可憐見，吾逃此劫。」之典為：

The phrase is usually traced back to the Protestant martyr John Bradford (c. 1510-55), who on seeing a group of criminals being led to their execution, remarked, 'But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford.'
From _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 16th Ed_ (1999) by Adrian Room

On 11/30/05, hanching chung <hcsimonl@gmail.com> wrote:  

1987: 'There but for the grace of God go I'

One November evening in 1987, a deadly fire broke out at King's Cross, London's busiest Underground station. It started in a machine room under a wooden escalator and turned into a huge fireball that engulfed the ticket hall and filled it with smoke.
The smoke could be seen coming out of the station's street-level entrances as screaming passengers ran out.
Altogether 31 people were killed, among them a fireman and one man who was not identified until January 2004.
Hundreds of commuters witnessed the tragedy unfold and many wrote to us to tell their story.
Were you a survivor of the King's Cross fire?

The tube journey [to King's Cross] was typically 20 minutes from Barons Court and I would normally have been on the very escalator that caught fire, when fire broke out, reportedly at 7.30pm. I remember a cold shiver going through me when I saw the news flash around midnight that night and again on seeing the burnt out remains of that escalator - my escalator - on the front page of the morning newspapers.
The thick hanging smell of the fire lingered in the tube station passageways for months afterwards.
There but for the grace of God go I.
Andrew Pryde, UK