Remarriage more positive evaluations of their lives compared to divorced individuals who remain single. While divorced couples have a higher risk of developing a wide range of physical and mental health problems, remarrying may attenuate, but not eliminate, some of these health risks. Second Marriages: Triumph of decision over hope? It is often assumed that second marriages are riskier than first marriages - “The triumph of hope over experience” as popularised by Samuel Johnson in 1791. A new analysis of data commissioned from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) challenges this assumption. In fact, second marriages overall do consistently better than
A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson way Tyers revealed Johnson's private life; Hester Thrale wrote, in her "Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson", "Poor Johnson! I see they will leave "nothing untold" that I laboured so long to keep secret; & I was so very delicate in trying to conceal his fancied Insanity." Regardless of what Thrale may have wanted, critics focused on Johnson's mental state from then after. In particular, John Wain emphasizes Tyers's description of Johnson as "like a ghost. He never speaks unless he is spoken to", which Wain considered a "bon mot". Likwise, Walter Jackson Bate relies on how Tyers was able