Refine and subtilise your language to the very uttermost, and it will still retain associations and reminiscences, however faint and distant, of the material world.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
So these spindle-shanked emperors and bishops and generals, who subtilise everything with their reason, disgust me.
"A Struggle for Rome, Vol. 2 (of 3)"
Felix Dahn
They take perfectly clear texts and subtilise on them till they make them doubtful, under the pretext of freeing them from imaginary corruptions.
"Introduction to the Study of History"
Charles V. Langlois Charles Seignobos