NOTES.
Dedication. Pag. viii.
(1.) Herodotus relates that after the Murder of the falſe Smerdis, the ſeven Deliverers of Perſia being aſſembled to conſult upon the Form of Government they ſhould give their Country, Otanes pleaded ſtrongly in Favour of the Republican; an Advice the more extraordinary in the Mouth of a Satrap, as, beſides the Pretenſions he might have formed to the Throne, Men in Power generally fear more than Death itſelf a Species of Government which obliges them to reſpect other Men. But Otanes, as we may well imagine, was not heard; therefore ſeeing the reſt on the Point of proceeding to the Choice of a Monarch, he, who did not ſeek to command or obey, voluntarily ceded his Right to the Crown to the other Competitors, without requiring any other Indemnification than that of being independent, him and all his Poſterity. Though Herodotus had not acquainted us with the Bounds ſet to this Privilege, we ſhould be under an indiſpenſable Neceſſity of ſuppoſing ſome; otherwiſe Otanes, acknowledging no kind of Law, and not being bound to account to any one for his
