The Doubt of the Ancients

The first philosophers, in investigating the truth and nature of things, wandered as if led by ignorance into a certain other path. They said that there were not many things, but that being itself alone had a subsistence. We ourselves say that nothing is simply generated from non-being, but at the same time it may be generated fromnon-being according to accident. A physician therefore builds, not so far as he is a physician, but so faras he is a builder. And, he becomes white,not so far as she is a physician,. But, he heals, and becomes deprived of medical skill, so far as they are doctors.