The consequence of this withdrawal was, that the various communities relapsed into a worse state than they had been before; and the evil increased so rapidly, from day to day, that the Medes felt themselves constrained to meet, in order to endeavour to find some remedy for it. This was what Dejoces had foreseen. He sent emissaries, therefore, to the assembly, with instructions in what manner to act. When the turn came for those persons to speak, they declared their opinion, that unless the face of the republic was entirely changed, the whole country would be entirely uninhabitable. "The only means," said they, "left for us is, to elect a king. Having elected a sovereign, with authority to restrain violence, and make laws, every one can prosecute his own affairs in peace and security." This opinion was seconded by the consent of the whole assembly. All that remained then was to find out a proper person. This did not require much time. Dejoces was the man to whom all eyes were instantly turned. He was, therefore, immediately elected king with the consent of all present. "There is," says the author from whom we borrow, "nothing nobler or greater, than to see a private person, eminent for his merit and virtue, and fitted by his excellent talents for the highest employments, and yet, through inclination and modesty, preferring a life of obscurity and retirement; thus to see such a man sincerely refuse the offer made to him of reigning over a whole nation, and at last consent to undergo the toil of government upon no other motive than that of being useful to his fellow citizens. Such a governor was Numa at Rome, and such have been some other governors, whom the people have constrained to accept the supreme power. But," continues he in a strain of great wisdom, "to put on the mask of modesty and virtue, in order to satisfy one's ambition, as Dejoces did; to affect to appear outwardly what a man is not inwardly; to refuse for a time, and then accept with a seeming repugnancy what a man earnestly desires, and what he has been labouring by secret, underhand, practices to obtain; this double dealing has so much meanness in it, that it goes a great way to lessen our opinion of the person, be his talents never so great or extraordinary." The method by which Dejoces gained his ambition to be king, greatly disenchants us of his merits. But having attained it, he acted in a manner few men have been found to adopt, even when they have arrived at the throne by the most legitimate of methods. He set himself to civilise and polish his subjects; men who, having lived perpetually in villages, almost without laws and without polity, had contracted rude manners and savage dispositions.