We perceive things in their plastic depth; and yet again the depth is not that of the outer world.

We are aware of its unreality and of the pictorial flatness of the impressions.
In every one of these features the contrast to the mental impressions from the real stage is obvious.

There in the theater we know at every moment that we see real plastic men before us, that they are really in motion when they walk and talk and that, on the other hand, it is our own doing and not a part of the play when our attention turns to this or that detail, when our memory brings back events of the past, when our imagination surrounds them with fancies and emotions.

And here, it seems, we have a definite starting point for an esthetic comparison.

If we raise the unavoidable question--how does the photoplay compare with the drama ?--we seem to have sufficient material on hand to form an esthetic judgment.