The only recourse available to imperfect humans, according to Johnson's message, is to submit themselves to the perfect will and understanding of God. In contrast to earthly ambition, Johnson argues in favor of spiritual ambition to live as good Christians, which brings true happiness. Nor deem, when learning her last prize bestows The glitt’ring eminence exempt from foes; See when the vulgar ’scapes despis’d or aw’d, Rebellion’s vengeful talons seize on Laud. Are these thy views? There's an old saying: "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise, No cries attempt the mercies of the skies? But we don't have superpowers, unfortunately. Course Hero. Yet should thy soul indulge the gen’rous heat, Till captive Science yields her last retreat; Should Reason guide thee with her brightest ray,And pour on misty doubt resistless day; Should no false kindness lure to loose delight, Nor praise relax, nor difficulty fright; Should tempting novelty thy cell refrain, And sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain; Should beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart, Nor claim the triumph of a letter’d heart; Should no disease thy torpid veins invade, Nor melancholy’s phantoms haunt thy shade; Yet hope not life from grief or danger free, Nor think the doom of man revers’d for thee: Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from learning, to be wise; There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. Pride is an ambiguous quality.

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proceed, illustrious youth, And virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth! Given the power of representative government, Britain's populace squanders its voice through political in-fighting and corruption. Stuck? Though human ideals and ambitions may be grand, the imperfect people within "The Vanity of Human Wishes" often fall to pride, wrath, foolishness, greed, and jealousy when their dreams are fulfilled.

One shews the plunder, and one hides the thief. The festal blazes, the triumphal show,The ravish’d standard, and the captive foe,The senate’s thanks, the Gazette’s pompous tale,With force resistless o’er the brave prevail.Such bribes the rapid Greek o’er Asia whirl’d,For such the steady Romans shook the world;For such in distant lands the Britons shine,And stain with blood the Danube or the Rhine;This power has praise, that virtue scarce can warm,Till fame supplies the universal charm.Yet reason frowns on war’s unequal game,Where wasted nation’s raise a single name,And mortgag’d states their grandsire’s wreaths regret,From age to age in everlasting debt;Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey,To rust on medals, or on stones decay. Even when these gifts are at their greatest, though, they breed discontent. that rages unconfin’d, And crowds with crimes the records of mankind;For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws, For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws; Wealth heap’d on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys, The dangers gather as the treasures rise.

He describes the popular ridicule for those who have been powerful in life, noting that their portraits are sold at auction or thrown away while the gilded frames are saved to encircle new faces. Johnson loosely adapts Juvenal's original satire to demonstrate "the complete inability of the world and of worldly life to offer genuine or permanent satisfaction." Love ends with hope, the sinking statesman’s door Pours in the morning worshiper no more; For growing names the weekly scribbler lies, To growing wealth the dedicator flies, From every room descends the painted face, That hung the bright palladium of the place, And smok’d in kitchens or in auctions sold, To better features yields the frame of gold; For now no more we trace in ev’ry line,Heroic worth, benevolence divine: The form distorted justifies the fall, And detestation rids th’ indignant wall. Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires, And strong devotion to the skies aspires, Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind, Obedient passions, and a will resign’d; For love, which scarce collective man can fill; For patience, sov’reign o’er transmuted ill; For faith, that panting for a happier seat, Counts death kind nature’s signal of retreat: These goods for man the laws of heaven ordain, These goods he grants, who grants the pow’r to gain; With these celestial wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find.