. Mr.
Leslie Stephen is of opinion that it is inconclusive, and Forster could
find no evidence that is at all reasonably sufficient; while Mr. Stanley
Lane-Poole, Mr. Churton Collins, and others are strongly of opinion
that no such marriage ever took place. A full discussion of the evidence
would involve the consideration of the reliability of the witnesses, and
the probability of their having authentic information, and would be out
of place here. My own opinion is that the evidence for the marriage is
very far from convincing, and this view seems to be confirmed by all
that we know from his own letters of Swift's relations with Stella. It
has been suggested that she was pained by reports of Swift's intercourse
with Vanessa, and felt that his feelings towards herself were growing
colder; but this is surmise, and no satisfactory explanation has been
given to account for a form of marriage being gone through after so
many years of the closest friendship. There is no reason to suppose that
there was at the time any gossip in circulation about Stella, and if her
reputation was in question, a marriage of which the secret was carefully
kept would obviously be of no benefit to her. Moreover, we are told that
there was no change in their mode of life; if they were married, what
reason could there be for keeping it a secret, or for denying themselves
the closer relationship of marriage? The only possible benefit to
Stella was that Swift would be prevented marrying anyone else. It is
impossible, of course, to disprove a marriage which we are told was
secretly performed, without banns or licence or witnesses; but we may
reasonably require strong evidence for so startling a step. If we
reject the tale, the story of Swift's connection with Stella is at least
intelligible; while the acceptance of this marriage introduces many
puzzling circumstances, and makes it necessary to believe that during
the remainder of Stella's life Swift repeatedly spoke of his wife as a
friend, and of himself as one who had never married.(7) What right have
we to put aside Swift's plain and repeated statements? Moreover, his
attitude towards Vanessa for the remaining years of her life becomes
much more culpable if we are to believe that he had given Stella the
claim of a wife upon him.(8)

From 1719 onwards we have a series of poems to Stella, written chiefly
in celebration of her birthday. She was now thirty-eight (Swift says,
"Thirty-four--we shan't disp