Has the fire really grown less hot?
And if I could withdraw to a sufficient distance, I know that the fire would appear to me smaller and less bright.

Could I get far enough away to make it seem the faintest speck in the field of vision, would I be tempted to claim that the fire shrunk and grew faint merely because I walked away from it?
Surely not.
Now, suppose that I stand on the same spot and look at the fire without turning my head.

The stick at which I am gazing catches the flame, blazes up, turns red, and finally falls together, a little mass of gray ashes.

Shall I describe this by saying that my sensations have changed, or may I say that the fire itself has changed?
The plain man and the philosopher alike use the latter expression in such a case as this.
Let us take another illustration.

I walk towards the distant house on the plain before me.