To me, the tunnel's best qualities were its most evanescent.

If - as more and more commentators claim - America has embarked on a new age of empire, it may turn out to be the most evanescent empire in all history.

The gliding of shadows, the rippling of waves, the reflection in the water, cloud formations: all that is most evanescent and most delicate is expressed with easy mastery.

THAT most evanescent of media, outdoor advertising, is attaining a kind of permanence.

LEAD: IT was the most evanescent of unofficial landmarks, a haphazard alignment of buildings spanning half a century along a mile-long stretch of Fifth Avenue.

Sadly, "everything" usually proves to be the most evanescent of talents.

One might think that his attention to the most evanescent of natural phenomena would have loosened up his painting, maybe pushed it toward some version of Impressionism.

Here is television that demands not just decent but the best equipment, complete with high-resolution screens and stereo speakers, capable of picking up the most evanescent color changes and the softest orchestral sounds.

Programmed rhythms and elusive sound samples percolate through airy, wistful pop in the latest songs by the Sea and Cake, the Chicago group that gives form to the most evanescent yearnings.

I was forced to follow the most evanescent clues and to build up the picture of the human being who had done the deed.