Metaphysics

​For whatever is neither always nor for the most part, this we say is accidental. For example, if a storm and cold should occur during the dog-days, we say this happened accidentally, but not if stifling heat and warmth occur, because the latter is always or for the most part, but the former is not. And it is accidental for a man to be white (for it is neither always nor for the most part), but to be an animal is not by accident. And it is also accidental for the builder to cure, because a builder is not suited by nature to do this, but a doctor is, and it accidentally happened that the builder was a doctor. And a cook, aiming at pleasure, might make something healthy, but not by the art of cookery; therefore “it accidentally happened,” we say, and there is a way in which he makes it, but not simply. For of other things there are productive capacities, but of these there is no definite art or capacity; for of things that exist or come to be by accident, the cause is also by accident. So, since not all things are or come to be of necessity and always, but most things are for the most part, it is necessary that being by accident exists. For example, a white man is neither always nor for the most part musical, but since he sometimes becomes so, it will be by accident (otherwise, all things will be of necessity). Therefore, the matter which is capable of being otherwise than for the most part will be the cause of the accidental. But we must take this as a starting point: is there nothing that is neither always nor for the most part? Or is this impossible? There is, then, something besides these, namely, the ‘as it chances’ and the accidental. But is there only that which is for the most part, while that which is always belongs to nothing, or are there some eternal things? About these, then, we must inquire later, but that there is no science of the accidental is clear; for all science is either of that which is always or of that which is for the most part—for how else will one learn or teach another? For it must be defined either by the ‘always’ or by the ‘for the most part’, for example, that honey-water is beneficial to a feverish patient for the most part—but what is besides this one will not be able to say, when it is not, for instance, on the new moon; for ‘on the new moon’ also is either always or for the most part; but the accidental is besides these. What, then, the accidental is, and through what cause, and that there is no science of it, has been said.