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Which Roman satire inspired The Vanity of Human Wishes?
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Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson, oil on canvas by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1756; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) was inspired by the 10th satire of the Roman poet Juvenal.123
While the poem takes its cue from Juvenal’s work, Samuel Johnson adapted the original to emphasize moral themes over the social and political critiques found in the Roman text. Furthermore, whereas Juvenal’s satire is rooted in Stoic philosophy, Johnson’s poem incorporates the Old Testament perspective of Ecclesiastes and replaces Stoic virtues with the Christian virtue of patience.3