In non-permanent things, what exists potentially is evidently something
quite different (from what is said to exist actually). But when the
potential grammarian becomes an actual grammarian, why should not the
potential and actual coincide? The potential wise Socrates is the
same as the actual Socrates. Is the ignorant man, who was potentially
learned, the same as the learned? No: only accident makes of the
ignorant man a learned one; for it was not his ignorance that made him
potentially wise; with him, ignorance was only an accident; but his
soul, being by herself disposed (to be actually learned), still remains
potentially learned, in so far as she was actually so, and still keeps
what is called potential existence; thus the actual grammarian does
not cease being a potential grammarian.[18] Nothing hinders these two
different things (of being a potential and actual grammarian) from
coinciding; in the first case, the man is no more than a potential
grammarian; in the latter, the man is still a potential grammarian,
but this potentiality has acquired its form (that is, has become
actual[19]).