ernard-François Balssa, named his son after St Honoré whose day had just been celebrated. He had risen to the middle class, and married in 1797 the daughter of his Parisian superior, Anne-Charlotte-Laure Sallambier; she was 31 years his junior. The marriage was arranged by her father. Bernard-François had worked as a state prosecutor and Secretary to the King's Council in Paris. During the French Revolution, he was a member of the Commune, but was transferred to Tours in 1795 because of helping his former royalistic protectors. Bernard-François felt at home in the land of Rabelais, and started energetically to run the local hospital. In 1814 the family moved back to Paris.

Balzac spent the first four years of life in foster care, not so uncommon a practice in France even in the 20th century. His first years he lived in the village of Saint-Cyr, and returned to his parents at the age of four. At school Balzac was an ordinary pupil. He studied at the Collège de Vendôme and the Sorbonne, and then worked in law offices. In 1819, when his family moved for financial reasons to the small town of Villeparisis, Balzac announced that he wanted to be a writer. He returned to Paris and was installed in a shabby room at 9 rue Lediguiéres, near the Bibliothéque de l'Arsenal. A few years later he described the place in LA PEAU 

                                           --from [citation pending]  , as selected by A CAT

  "... are almost always prodigiously
slow, and his conclusions at times very abrupt--
he sometimes brin..."

"... to be free from ecclesiastical singsong and from all those cadences which lull the spectator so that the sense g..." 

Two items:   This:

"...are in nowise measured. His openings are almost always prodigiously slow, and his conclusions at times very abrupt--
he sometimes brin..."

from  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=1274438

originally from the book Balzac by Émile Faguet, Académie de Français, 1914

And this:

"... to be free from ecclesiastical singsong and from all those cadences which lull the spectator so that the sense g..." (from A Short Organum for the Theatre, 1948) 

                                                        -- from
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brecht.htm

 

brought together, for a short period of time, here, only to be ripped apart:

CORRECTION:

   Previous post contained etymology from memory. Here's the etymology from Webster's Tenth Edition Collegiate Dictionary:

¹con♦trol  \kυn-^'trΟl\     vt [ME controllen. fr. MF contreroller, fr. contrerolle copy of an account, audit, fr. ML contrarotulus, fr. L contra + ML rotulus roll -- more at ROLL] (15c)

²con♦trol n, often attrib (1590)

   The first definition listed above, the verb, is defined as follows:

1 a archaic: to check, test, or verify by evidence or experiments  b : to to incorporate suitable controls in < a controlled experiment >  2 a : to exercise restraining or directing influence over: REGULATE b : to have power over: RULE c : to reduce the incidence or severity of esp. to innocuous levels < ~ an insect population > < ~ a disease > syn see CONDUCT

   The second definition listed above, the noun, is defined as follows:

1 a : an act or instance of controlling also : power or authority to guide or manage b : skill in the use of a tool, instrument, technique, or artistic medium c : the regulation of economic activity esp. by government directive -- usu. used in pl. < price ~s >  2 : RESTRAINT, RESERVE  3 : one that controls: as a (1) : an experiment in which the subjects are treated as in a parallel experiment except for omission of the procedure or agent under test and which is used as a standard of comparison in judging experimental effects -- called also control experiment  (2) : one (as an organism, culture or group) that is part of a control  b : a device or mechanism used to regulate or guide the operation of a machine, apparatus, or system  c : an organization that directs a spaceflight < mission ~ > d : a personality or spirit believed to actuate the utterances or performances of a spiritualist medium  syn see POWER

   Let us start with the, I suspect, bullshit etymology.

   2nd entry - 1590 - first of shift?

   As  regards the citiation of contra + rotulus (prefix + noun) for a verb: does this happen often? Anyone with more information email me.       

   Now on to the bulshit definitions, starting with #1.

   I see an evolution here, via the order of listings of senses.  "Slipping in" the part about "RULE" under subsection b of sense 2 is not slipping by me. The compensatory sense of sense 2 c  is also a slap in the face.

   Suffice it to say that if the same person wrote both of these, he most likely felt remorse after writing the first, overdoing the second as a kind of messed-up apology. This entire second definition should be condensed to no more than: economic or administrative control, and experimental control (sense 1); and device control (sense 2).

   What are the tests for combining senses? Overlap in usage? More?

   derived meanings: proper and original:

   1) operate, as a machine

   2) administer, as the affairs of a department 

   3) manipulate, as a driven device (transportation device)

begins here