“He had not perceived them because he had become accustomed to them.” The reality that we accept gives us only that many said and laid reasons and chances to move forward as its logic allows us. Such is the world of the crystal shop's keeper, who, as yet, had never thought of what could possibly lie beyond the shop, let alone try to expand to make it a bigger business. His world is in The Alchemist, is sustained in itself. It is self-explanatory and has itself as its own refe