[1] Sosie is a character in Plautus and Molière. Hermes takes Sosie's form, and, when the latter sees his double, he almost doubts his own identity. So the word came to mean a counterpart, a double, one's alter ego.—Trans.
[2] This seems to be a reference to the wardrobe used by the early Spiritualists as a cabinet in their demonstrations in public halls.—Trans.
[3] The cock scratching for grain finds a pearl.
[4] In order that I may at once place before the eyes of my readers documentary evidence of these experiments, I reproduce here ([Pl. I]) a photograph taken at my apartments on the 12th of November in 1898. Any one can perceive by the horizontality of the arms, as well as by the distance between the feet of the table and the floor, that the elevation is from six to eight inches. The precise distance is marked on the figure itself,—a measurement taken the next day by propping up the table, with the aid of books, in the same position as it was. The medium has her two feet wholly under my right foot, while at the same time her knees are under my right hand. Her hands are upon the table grasped by my left hand and by that of the other critical observer or "control" (contrôleur), who has just placed a cushion before her to shield her very sensitive eyes from the flash of the magnesium light, and thus save her from a disagreeable nervous attack.
These photographs, taken rapidly by magnesium light, are not perfect, but they are records.
[5] See L'Inconnu, pp. 20-29.
[6] Certain book-shops in Paris.—Trans.
[7] Oration delivered at the grave of Allan Kardec, by Camille Flammarion, Paris, Didier, 1869, pp. 4, 17, 22.
[8] The author means, of course, by this phrase (milieu ambiant), the totality of psychic force present, the psychological atmosphere, the total mind-energy radiated by the several more or less sensitive or mediumistic members of the company.—Trans.
[9] This communication is given in English by the author.—Trans.