fame, and power, even to a tyranny itself? For in this way I might
have made my tongue a profitable member of my body; but now, being
hurried up and down in barren places, like one mad of love, from my
longing after fair youths, I waste my speech on them; receiving, as
is the wont of true lovers, only curses and ingratitude from their
arrogance. But tell me, thou proud Adonis-This spirit of truth in
thee, which thou thoughtest, and rightly, thy most noble possession-
did it desire truth, or not?"

P. "But, Socrates, I told you that very thing, and said that it was
a longing after truth, which I could not restrain or disobey."

S. "Tell me now, does one long for that which one possesses, or for
that which one does not possess?"

P. "For that which one does not possess."

S. "And is one in love with that which is oneself, or with that
which is not?"

P. "With that which is not oneself, thou mocker. We are not all,
surely, like Narcissus?"

S. "No, by the dog! not quite all. But see now: it appears that
when any one is in love with a thing, and longs for it, as thou
didst for truth, it must be something which is not himself, and
which he does not possess?"

P. "True."