"Assist" in the sense of to "be present at" is an "absurd" innovation; it was used by gibbon and by Prescott, a "tolerably good authority," says Mr. Tucker himself, "in the use of English."
"America To-day, Observations and Reflections"
William Archer
gibbon could not have collected his materials on those lines, certainly.
"Somehow Good"
William de Morgan
Thus the word 'Ability' is made the text of wise utterances from Napoleon I., Dr. Johnson, Wendell Phillips, Longfellow, Maclaren, Gail Hamilton, Froude, Beaconsfield, Zoroaster, Schopenhauer, La Rochefoucauld, Matthew Wren, gibbon, and Aristotle.
"Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia"
Maturin M. Ballou