Page:O. F. Owen's Organon of Aristotle Vol. 1 (1853).djvu/126

 is the contingent, is evident from opposite negatives and affirmatives, for the assertions—"it does not happen to be," and, "it is impossible to be," and, "it is necessary not to be," are either the same, or follow each other; wherefore also the contraries to these, "it happens to be," "it is not impossible to be," and, "it is not necessary not to be," will either be the same, or follow each other; for of every thing, there is either affirmation or negation, hence the contingent will be not necessary, and the not-necessary will be contingent. It happens, indeed, that all contingent propositions are convertible with each other. I do not mean the affirmative into the negative, but as many as have an affirmative figure, as to opposition; e. g. "it happens to exist," (is convertible into) "it happens not to exist," and, "it happens to every," into "it happens to none," or, "not to every," and, "it happens to some," into "it happens not to some." In the same manner also with the rest, for since the contingent is non-necessary, and the non-necessary may happen not to exist, it is clear that if A happens to be with any B, it may also happen not to be present, and if it happens to be present with every B, it may also happen not to be present with every B. There is the same reasoning also in particular affirmatives, for the demonstration is the same, but such propositions are affirmative and not negative, for the verb "to be contingent," is arranged similarly to the verb "to be," as we have said before.

These things then being defined, let us next remark, that to be contingent is predicated in two ways, one that which happens for the most part and yet falls short of the necessary—(for instance, for a man to become hoary, or to grow, or to waste, or in short whatever may naturally be, for this has not a continued necessity, for the man may not always exist, but while he does exist it is either of necessity or for the most part)—the other way (the contingent is) indefinite, and is that which may be possibly thus and not thus; as for an animal to walk, or while it is walking for an earthquake to happen, or in short whatever occurs casually, for