Two jests and the maxim 'Truth is the daughter of Time'
A Pythagorean reincarnation joke, a saying, and a painter's quip
This folio is given over to literary prose rather than science. A first jest tells of a man who, citing Pythagoras, claims to have lived before and "proves" it by recalling that his heckler was once a miller and he himself the ass that carried the miller's flour. Between the jests stands the maxim "Truth alone has been the daughter of Time," followed by a second jest about a painter who made beautiful figures yet ugly children, explaining that he made the paintings by day and his children by night.
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Jest: the Pythagorean and the miller's ass
A man invokes Pythagoras to argue he has lived in the world before, and when interrupted retorts that as proof he remembers his interrupter once being a miller. Stung, the other confirms it, recalling the countersign that the first man had been the ass that carried his flour.
Maxim: Truth, the daughter of Time
Set between the two jests is the aphorism that truth alone has been the daughter of Time. It was added in the narrow space between the surrounding blocks of text.
Jest: the painter's beautiful figures and ugly children
A painter is asked why, since he makes such beautiful figures of lifeless things, his own children are so ugly. He answers that he made the paintings by day and his children by night.