six
brothers--for he is the seventh son of a seventh son. The six elder
brethren--nice enough boys--stand submissively around their gigantic and
bearded junior, reaching only to his waist, and gazing up at him with
reverence, as the sheaves of Joseph's brethren worshipped his sheaf in
his dream. At the end is a picture of Magnus Roback, the grandfather of
C. W., a bull-headed, ugly old Dutchman, with a globe and compasses.
This picture, by the way, is in fact a cheap likeness of the old
discoverers or geographers. Within the book we find Gustavus Roback, the
father of C. W., for whom is used a cut of Jupiter--or some other
heathen god--half-naked, a-straddle of an eagle, with a hook in one hand
and a quadrant in the other; which is very much like the picture by one
of the "Old Masters" of Abraham about to offer up Isaac, and taking a
long aim at the poor boy with a flint-lock horse-pistol. Doctor Roback
is good enough to tell us where his brothers are: "One, a high officer
in the Empire of China, another a Catholic Bishop in the city of Rome,"
and so on. There is also a cut of his sister, whom he cured of
consumption. She is represented "talking to her bird, after the fashion
of her country, when a maiden is unexpectedly rescued from the jaws of
death!"

Roback cures all sorts of diseases, discovers stolen property, insures
children a marriage, and so on, all by means of "conjurations." He also
casts nativities and foretells future events; and he shows in full how
Bernadotte, Louis Philippe, and Napoleon Bonaparte either did well or
would have done well by following his advice. The chief peculiarity of
this impostor is, that he really avoids direct pandering to vice and
crime, and even makes it a specialty to cure drunkenness and--of all
things in the world--lying! On this point Roback gives in full the
certificate of Mrs. Abigail Morgan, whose daughter Amanda "was sorely
given to fibbing, in so much that she would rather lie than speak the
truth." And the delighted mother certifies that our friend and wizard
"so changed the nature of the girl that, to the best of our knowledge
and belief, she has never spoken anything but the truth since."

There is a conjurer "as is a conjurer."

What an uproar the incantation of the great Roback would make, if set
fairly to work among the politicians, for instance! But after all, on
second thoughts, what a horrible mass of abominations would they lay
bare in telling the truth abou