subtile
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Recent scientific discoveries have conferred upon man new powers of investigation, whereby nature has been made to reveal secrets so subtile that they never had been dreamt of before in philosophy.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 13, 2013
At Paris the Universe is seen, compos’d of Vortices of subtile Matter; but nothing like it is seen in London.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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Any subtile, invisible emanation, effluvium, or exhalation from a substance, as the aroma of flowers, the odor of the blood, a supposed fertilizing emanation from the pollen of flowers, etc.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
Sub′tilise, to make subtile, thin, or rare: to spin into niceties.—v.i. to make nice distinctions: to refine in argument.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Man's daintiest care, & caution cannot spy The subtile point of his coy destiny, Wch way it threats.
From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I (of 2) by Richard Crashaw
No, his temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than mere brutal freedom.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 50, December, 1861 by Various
The heavens change by a subtiler movement than the precession of the equinoxes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 by Various
That cause of motion he makes the Materia Subtilis; and the finer or subtiler that is, the better and fitter he conceives it to be to preserve Motion.
From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 Giving some Accompt of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many considerable parts of the World by Henry Oldenburg
It is the subtiler nature of doubt to penetrate the heart more profoundly than confidence, and to underlie it.
From Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment 1898 by Edward Bellamy
Something keener than philosophy, subtiler than Epicurus, pricked Fred, as Minnie vanished into the cloud of snowflakes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 18, April, 1859 by Various
What stuff is the man made of who is not coexistent in our thought with the purest and subtilest truth?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 by Various
The notion of nonentity may thus be called the parent of the philosophic craving in its subtilest and profoundest sense.
From The Will to Believe : and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
But if you watch it attentively, you will find it ever changing, though with subtilest refinement, ever human, and true to the great laws of emotion.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861 Creator by Various
In such spaces he may dream his dreams, tell his stories, and stamp on them for centuries his subtilest and divinest thoughts.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various
This is a truth that takes all the sting out of Lord Bacon's observation that "against Atheists the very savages take part with the very subtilest philosophers."
From Flowers of Freethought (Second Series) by G. W. (George William) Foote