e. its proper end. And as for
the argument that 'when he who is musical becomes lettered he'll be
both at once, not having been both before; and that which is, not
always having been, must have come to be; therefore he must have at
once become musical and lettered',-this none of the recognized
sciences considers, but only sophistic; for this alone busies itself
about the accidental, so that Plato is not far wrong when he says that
the sophist spends his time on non-being.
That a science of the accidental is not even possible will be
evident if we try to see what the accidental really is. We say that
everything either is always and of necessity (necessity not in the
sense of violence, but that which we appeal to in demonstrations),
or is for the most part, or is neither for the most part, nor always
and of necessity, but merely as it chances; e.g. there might be cold
in the dogdays, but this occurs neither always and of necessity, nor
for the most part, though it might happen sometimes. The accidental,
then, is what occurs, but not always nor of necessity, nor for the
most part. Now we have said what the accidental is, and it is
obvious why there is no science of such a thing; for all science is of
that which is always or for the most part, but the accidental is in
neither of these classes.
Evidently there are not causes and principles of the accidental,
of the same kind as there are of the essential; for if there were,
everything would be of necessity. If A is when B is, and B is when C
is, and if C exists not by chance but of necessity, that also of which
C was cause will exist of necessity, down to the last causatum as it
is called (but this was supposed to be accidental).
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