Steve--

As I occasionally have to point out, my comments are intended to be taken l with the lilting irony that we can excercise when we are so removed from events as to be unable to impact them.

In this spirit, I'll point out that Newton has been dead for about two hundred years, so he is not able to comply with any request that you've made, no matter how reasonable it may seem to you.

As to your claim that history is full of people who have forsaken ill-gotten wealth--I'll grant that there have been some--but most kept the ill-gotten wealth--often with the assistance of those sworn to uphold the law--and neither spoke nor speak any regrets.

From the bits of Newton's writing that I have seen, he seemed a particularly stringent and unyielding Calvinist(as if there were any other kind!)--which I respect--and I think he had sincere regrets.

When it comes down to it, you are also stringent and unyielding about your principles, which I do respect--despite appearances to the contrary.

Given all that, I am not about to review the lives of all the lyricists I know of, with a view toward expunging the works of hypocrites and rascals from my repertoire.