But, as this was supposed to be, in
a literal sense, impossible to all men with the ordinary endowments of
memory, in order to reconcile the pretensions of republican hauteur with
the necessities of human weakness, a custom had grown up of relying upon a
class of men, called _nomenclators_, whose express business and
profession it was to make themselves acquainted with the person and name
of every citizen. One of these people accompanied every candidate, and
quietly whispered into his ear the name of each voter as he came in sight.
Few, indeed, were they who could dispense with the services of such an
assessor; for the office imposed a twofold memory, that of names and of
persons; and to estimate the immensity of the effort, we must recollect
that the number of voters often far exceeded one quarter of a million. The
very same trial of memory he undertook with respect to his own army, in
this instance recalling the well known feat of Mithridates. And throughout
his life he did not once forget the face or name of any veteran soldier
whom he ever had occasion to notice, no matter under what remote climate,
or under what difference of circumstances.
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