5. [5.] I have spoken with the English about their acumen, inquiring into the reason for this characteristic in them, that when they hear truths from one worthy of belief among them, they then see those truths and thus readily conform themselves to them, and why it is that in them a snowy whiteness appears over their natural element, and I learned that it is owing to the light of heaven from which they have their intelligence. The same characteristic is found among the Dutch, except that in them that snowy whiteness does not appear, but instead a certain firmness on the border between the spiritual and natural mind, and therefore they are slower to accept. I was told that the reason for the light appearing in the English is their way of life, which differs from that of all other nations. To enable me to perceive this to be the reason, a comparison was made with present-day Italians, whose system of government is totally contrary to that of the English. In England people have the freedom to speak and write about both political and spiritual matters, but absolutely no freedom to employ guile and cunning in order to deceive others, or to conspire to murder, or to rob and kill; and if they do so, they receive no clemency. The opposite, however, is true in the case of Italians today. People there have the freedom to deceive by cunning and guile, and also to kill-a freedom they derive from the existence of so many places of refuge and of dispensations-but they have absolutely no freedom to speak or write about church or political matters there on account of the Inquisition. As a result the Italian people retain matters of that sort inside them, and thus a fire, which is one of smoldering hatred, vengeance and savagery, a fire like that which after a conflagration lies hidden for a long time beneath the ashes and consumes. But not so the English people, because they are allowed to speak and write freely. Therefore such a fire is not concealed within but instantly dies down, and the people are kept in the practice of honesty and justice by their not being permitted to deceive, rob or kill, since no dispensation is available then, nor anywhere a place of refuge.