Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

27th June, 1940.

27th Chapter of "Life Divine". The publishers in consultation with the Professor of English changed "founded in" into "founded on". Sri Aurobindo said when I told him about the change, "I have already used that in the previous paragraph and they have suggested "on" and I have not accepted the suggestion. I have used there "in" purposely. These people think that they know English better than I do. They are habituated to use current phrases and words in their usual sense but they do not know that a good writer does not always use current phrases and words in their usual meaning.

Disciple : But they do it after consulting a Professor.

Sri Aurobindo : Yes, but the Professor is an Indian. He is not an Englishman. It is these people who have learnt the language that want to use current phrases. As Richard Stephenson said, "English language is like a woman who loves you for taking liberty with her." Once Sir D.-V. sent me one of his books and on every page I found 40 such worn out expressions, what they call cliche and all the Indians are praising the English. Perhaps an Englishman would have said, "What a horrible style!"

Page 281