12mo. 71pp, [1]. Uncut. Stitched, as issued. Remnants of original publisher's powder blue wrappers at spine. Title page and terminal leaf chipped and stained.

The first edition, in original unsophisticated state, of extracts from the spiritual diary of Buckinghamshire-based Wesleyan Methodist Hannah Ball (1734-1792), kept over a period of thirty years. Ball began keeping her diary in 1766, shortly after her conversion to Methodism having witnessed John Wesley (1703-1791) and other itinerant members of the Methodist Church preaching in her home town of High Wycombe. She became a regular correspondent and trusted confidant of Wesley. She is chiefly remembered as a progenitor of the Sunday school movement. Though Robert Raikes (1725-1811) is credited with founding the first Sunday school in 1780, Ball founded her school in High Wycombe in 1769, meeting the children each Sunday and Monday.

ESTC records copies at just locations (BL, Emory, Manchester, Oxford, Texas, and York Minster).