"Two plates were exposed, and on one side, beside the photo of the lady herself, there is an unmistakable photo of the boy. I have seen it, and a photo of the boy taken before he went to France, and there is no mistaking the likeness. She sent the pictures to his parents, who before this had not been believers in the possibility of communication with those who have passed on--with the result that they are now convinced of it, and have received several comforting and assuring messages from their boy." We see how imperceptibly ordinary psychic photographs shade off into those more definitely spiritistic in character. This is true in nearly all phenomena in this realm. It is hard to draw any hard-and-fast line, and say: "_This_ is due to powers within our own being, and _this_ is due to external spiritual beings!" They merge one into the other so gradually that it is extremely difficult to draw any line of demarcation between the two. Certainly _some_ of these photographs are due to the thoughts or other psychic activities of the sitter. Thus we can hardly suppose that the "spirits" of bottles, walking-sticks and eagles (as in Darget's experiments) were actually present, and that they impressed themselves upon the photographic plate! Again, some pictures show us a definite _face_, which we cannot attribute to any outside influence. The experimenter merely _thought_ of the face, and it appeared upon the plate. This being so, how can we _ever_ obtain proof that the forms and faces which appear upon photographic plates are those of discarnate spirits,--even though they appear and are recognized,--since we know that mental images or memories of faces have been photographed in just this manner? That is indeed a difficult problem: it is very like that which confronts us in the case of any good trance-medium. Inasmuch as telepathy is a fact, and the medium almost certainly derives _some_ of the facts from one's mind, or from the minds of other living people, how can we ever prove "survival"--the actual communication of our spirit friends? We can only apply the same sort of tests in the one case as in the other. We must discount all those facts which might possibly have been obtained normally, or by telepathy, and pin our faith on those which could not possibly, or conceivably, have been obtained in this way. Similarly, we must assume that all psychic photographs represent normal markings upon the plates, or the emotions or thoughts of the sitter, or the vital radiations issuing from his body, until indisputable proof to the contrary be forthcoming. (It may be added that some very striking evidence of identity has been obtained in this manner, from time to time in the past, and is now being obtained in various circles both in this country and abroad.)