ALCIBIADES: Proceed, my good man, and I will listen.

SOCRATES: I will proceed; and, although no lover likes to speak with one
who has no feeling of love in him (compare Symp.), I will make an effort,
and tell you what I meant: My love, Alcibiades, which I hardly like to
confess, would long ago have passed away, as I flatter myself, if I saw you
loving your good things, or thinking that you ought to pass life in the
enjoyment of them. But I shall reveal other thoughts of yours, which you
keep to yourself; whereby you will know that I have always had my eye on
you. Suppose that at this moment some God came to you and said:
Alcibiades, will you live as you are, or die in an instant if you are
forbidden to make any further acquisition?--I verily believe that you would
choose death. And I will tell you the hope in which you are at present
living: Before many days have elapsed, you think that you will come before
the Athenian assembly, and will prove to them that you are more worthy of
honour than Pericles, or any other man that ever lived, and having proved
this, you will have the greatest power in the state. When you have gained
the greatest power among us, you will go on to other Hellenic states, and
not only to Hellenes, but to all the barbarians who inhabit the same
continent with us. And if the God were then to say to you again: Here in
Europe is to be your seat of empire, and you must not cross over into Asia
or meddle with Asiatic affairs, I do not believe that you would choose to
live upon these terms; but the world, as I may say, must be filled with
your power and name--no man less than Cyrus and Xerxes is of any account
with you. Such I know to be your hopes--I am not guessing only--and very
likely you, who know that I am speaking the truth, will reply, Well,
Socrates, but what have my hopes to do with the explanation which you
promised of your unwillingness to leave me? And that is what I am now
going to tell you, sweet son of Cleinias and Dinomache. The explanation