L. 405. aux âmes bien nées : 'in noble soûls.' See

L. 409-410. Thèse Unes, which it is hardly possible to translate closely, may be thus paraphrased : Men such as I do not make themselves known by repeated trials ; they seek to signalize themselves by their first efforts. For this use of à deux fois, compare the idiom nen pas faire à deux fois, ' to act without hésitation,' and the English,' ' to do a thing at once.'