subtile

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

And thus it is that the work of creation has neither beginning nor ending, but is ever progressing in its subtile methods of combining, dissolving, and recombining the entire matter of the universe.

From Nature and Culture by Harvey Rice

Ladislaus, after a considerable loss of blood and a somewhat lengthy confinement in bed, looked pale and miserable, but his countenance had acquired a more subtile expression and actually become handsome.

From Whirlpools A Novel of Modern Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz

One seeks to accommodate one's self to her doctrine through subtile distinctions.

From The Catholic World; Volume I, Issues 1-6 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by E. Rameur

Is not the Heat of the warm Room convey'd through the Vacuum by the Vibrations of a much subtiler Medium than Air, which after the Air was drawn out remained in the Vacuum?

From Opticks or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Sir Isaac Newton

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

We rather think that far subtiler things than the doctrine of association had from of old been familiar to him.

From Life of Robert Burns by Thomas Carlyle

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

No, his temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than mere brutal freedom The East, the Old World, was his proper sphere for self-development.

From Margret Howth, a Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis

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

A book might be written on the Stratagems of Literature, as Frontinus has composed one on War, and among its subtilest heroes we might place this great poet.

From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli

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

Truth is a point; the subtilest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away, or blunted.

From Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection by Walter Savage Landor

He saw it was lovable, and he made it the theme of his noblest poems, his subtilest philosophies, and his highest Art.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861 Creator by Various