And it is an accident that a man is pale (for this
is neither always nor for the most part so), but it is not by accident
that he is an animal. And that the builder produces health is an
accident, because it is the nature not of the builder but of the
doctor to do this,-but the builder happened to be a doctor. Again, a
confectioner, aiming at giving pleasure, may make something wholesome,
but not in virtue of the confectioner's art; and therefore we say
'it was an accident', and while there is a sense in which he makes it,
in the unqualified sense he does not. For to other things answer
faculties productive of them, but to accidental results there
corresponds no determinate art nor faculty; for of things which are or
come to be by accident, the cause also is accidental. Therefore, since
not all things either are or come to be of necessity and always,
but, the majority of things are for the most part, the accidental must
exist; for instance a pale man is not always nor for the most part
musical, but since this sometimes happens, it must be accidental (if
not, everything will be of necessity). The matter, therefore, which is
capable of being otherwise than as it usually is, must be the cause of
the accidental. And we must take as our starting-point the question
whether there is nothing that is neither always nor for the most part.
Surely this is impossible. There is, then, besides these something
which is fortuitous and accidental. But while the usual exists, can
nothing be said to be always, or are there eternal things? This must
be considered later,' but that there is no science of the accidental
is obvious; for all science is either of that which is always or of
that which is for the most part.
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