"From this time on, there was great excitement in the school, so much the more as all the young girls, without exception, had seen the second form and agreed perfectly in their description of the phenomenon. Shortly after this one of the pupils, Mlle. Antoinette de Wrangel, obtained permission to go with several companions to a party in the neighborhood. She was completing her toilet, when Mlle. Sagee with her usual kindness and habitual willingness to assist, came to help her button up the back of her dress. The young girl, turning, perceived in the mirror, two Sagees at work upon her. She was so frightened at this sudden appearance that she fainted.

1Animisme et Spiritisme, p. 498.

"Some months passed and similar phenomena continued to occur. At dinner, from time to time, the teacher's double was seen standing behind her chair imitating her movements while the real Mlle. Sagee was eating, but the double used neither knife nor fork nor did she take any food into her hands.

"Pupils present at the meals and servants in attendance have attested the truth of this phenomenon.

"Nevertheless it did not always happen that the double imitated the movements of the real person. Sometimes when the latter would arise from her chair, the double would remain seated.

"One day all the pupils, to the number of forty-two, were assembled in the same room busy with embroidery. It was a large room on the ground floor of the principal building. It had four glass doors, which opened on to a large garden belonging to the school. In the middle of this room was a long table around which the different classes gathered for their needlework. That day the young pupils were all seated about the table and could see very well what was going on in the garden. As they worked they saw Mlle. Sagee busy picking flowers not far from the house: it was one of her favorite pastimes.

"At the upper end of the table another teacher was seated in a chair of green morocco. She was in charge of the class. At a given moment this lady left the room and the chair remained empty. But only for a short time, for the young girls saw in it, quite suddenly, the form of Mlle. Sagee. Immediately they looked into the garden and saw her still there picking flowers, but her movements were slower now, like those of a person overcome by sleep or exhausted by fatigue. They looked again at the chair where the double was seated, silent and impassive, but with such an appearance of reality that if they had not seen Mlle. Sagee and if that they had not known that it was impossible for her to have entered the room unperceived, they would have believed it was she herself. But certain that they were not dealing with a real person, and more or less accustomed to these strange manifestations, two of the most venturesome pupils approached the chair and touching the apparition thought they felt a slight resistance, such as that occasioned by contact with any light material such as gauze or crepe. One even dared to pass in front of the chair and to go through part of the form, despite which, the apparition remained visible for a little while longer, then gradually faded away. The children observed at that instant that Mlle. Sagee was again gathering flowers with her customary vivacity. The forty-two pupils described this phenomenon in exactly the same way."

This proves that in the state of visible exteriorization the double has something corporeal: it is the beginning of materialization.

If Mlle. Sagee had given herself up to experimentation an occult entity might have manifested itself by taking possession of her double in order to produce certain phenomena at a distance, and might even have modeled the double into its own image and likeness. The best mediums are those who do not look for manifestations, but reveal themselves spontaneously, and are surprised by intelligent operations which they cannot attribute to themselves.

The following story of Victorin Joncieres is taken from a book by Camille Flammarion:1

1 Les Forces Naturelles lnconnues, 1897.

"I was leaving the exhibition room of our Conservatory after having given an examination to a certain class in piano, when I was accosted by a lady who asked my opinion in regard to her daughter, as to whether I thought that she should enter upon an artistic career. In the course of a rather long conversation in which I promised to go and listen to the young artist, I found that I was engaged to make a call that very evening upon one of their friends, a high official of the State, and to be present at a spiritualistic seance. That evening the master of the house received me with extreme cordiality and conducted me into a large room with bare walls. A few people were gathered there, among them his wife and a professor of Physics at the Lycee - in all about ten people. In the middle of the room was an enormous table of oak on which were placed paper, a pencil and a small harmonica, a bell and a lighted lamp. "The spirit has just announced to me," said he, "that he will come at 10:00 p.m. We have therefore a good hour ahead of us. I shall profit by it and read you some of the minutes of our seances of the past year."

"He put his watch on the table - it pointed to five minutes after nine o'clock - and covered it with a handkerchief. For one hour, he read the most unbelievable tales. I was impatient however to see something. Suddenly a violent cracking came from the table. Mr. X took off the handkerchief which covered the watch - it was exactly ten o'clock. "Spirits, are you there?" he said. No one touched the table around which at his recommendation we formed a circle in which each held the other by the hand. A louder rap sounded. The young niece put her two small fingers on the edge of the table and asked us to imitate her. And this table of enormous weight raised itself above our heads in such a manner that we were obliged to stand in order to follow it in its ascent. It balanced itself a few minutes in space, then descended slowly to the floor where it settled without noise. Mr. X brought out next a large drawing on glass. He placed it upon the table and put beside it a glass of water, a box of colors and a paint brush. He then extinguished the lamp, relighting it three minutes later. The design, still wet, was colored in two tones, in yellow and blue, without a single stroke of the brush having passed beyond the traced lines."