the shape of
Note by H. Craik to Chapter 3 of Battle of the Books

This doubtless refers to Atterbury, who was Boyle's chief inspirer in his Examination of the Dissertation published in 1698. In a letter to Boyle of the same year, Atterbury very bitterly resents the ingratitude and vanity of the youth, in failing to recognise his help.

'In laying the design of the book, in writing above half of it, in reviewing a good part of the rest, in transcribing the whole, and attending the press, half a year of my life went away . . . No one expression has dropped from you that could give me reason to believe that you had any opinion of what I had done, or even took it kindly from me. . . You will easily, therefore, excuse me if I meddle no further in a matter where my management has had the ill-luck to displease you and a good friend of yours : whereas I had the vanity to think and hope that it would have sat ill on nobody but Mr. Wotton and Dr. Bentley.'