Things, then, not predicated
of a subject I call essential; things predicated of a subject I call
accidental or 'coincidental'.
In another sense again (b) a thing consequentially connected with
anything is essential; one not so connected is 'coincidental'. An
example of the latter is 'While he was walking it lightened': the
lightning was not due to his walking; it was, we should say, a
coincidence. If, on the other hand, there is a consequential
connexion, the predication is essential; e.g. if a beast dies when its
throat is being cut, then its death is also essentially connected with
the cutting, because the cutting was the cause of death, not death a
'coincident' of the cutting.
So far then as concerns the sphere of connexions scientifically
known in the unqualified sense of that term, all attributes which
(within that sphere) are essential either in the sense that their
subjects are contained in them, or in the sense that they are
contained in their subjects, are necessary as well as
consequentially connected with their subjects. For it is impossible
for them not to inhere in their subjects either simply or in the
qualified sense that one or other of a pair of opposites must inhere
in the subject; e.
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