Note 318 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 346) describes Hollis as 'a most excellent man, a most immaculate Whig, but as simple a poor soul as ever existed, except his editor, who has given extracts from the good creature's diary that are very near as anile as Ashmole's. There are thanks to God for reaching every birthday, ... and thanks to Heaven for her Majesty's being delivered of a third or fourth prince, and God send he may prove a good man.' See also Walpole's Journal of the Reign of George III, i. 287. Dr. Franklin wrote much more highly of him. Speaking of what he had done, he said:—'It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man, if he will make a business of it.' Franklin's Memoirs, ed. 1818, iii. 135.