"Balzac is like those people who, hearing a Monsieur say: "le Prince" when speaking of the Duc d'Aumale, "Madame la duchesse" when speaking of a duchess, and seeing him put his hat on the floor in a salon, before learning that one says of a prince: le Prince, whether he is called the Comte de Paris, the Prince de Joinville or the Duc de Chartres, and other usages, said "Why do you say: le Prince, since he is a duke? Why do you say Mme la duchesse, as a servant, etc.?" But since they know it's customary, they think they've always known it, or, if they remember having made these objections, they don't stop lecturing others, and take pleasure in explaining to them the usages of the big world, usages they've only known for a short time.
Their peremptory tone of yesterday's scholars is precisely that of Balzac when he says what ought to be done and what not."
Marcel Proust, Contre Sainte-Beuve, Folio essais, p. 204 - 205