Quarto. xii, 164pp. With a half-title. Later two-tone paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece. Extremities rubbed. Recent bookplates of 'E.M.L. and Helen M. Scurr to FEP, half-title washed (faint manuscript annotations to foot), blind-stamps of the University of Bridgeport Library to title page and leaf M1, scattered spotting. Early inked ownership inscriptions of George Glennie and James Beattie to title page.

The first edition of William Hayley's (1745-1820) most significant work, a didactic allegorical poem, composed in rhyming couplets, designed to teach young women the virtues of possessing a pleasant nature. The work ran through in excess of ten editions by the turn of the century.

James Beattie (1735- 1803), Scottish poet and philosopher, primarily remembered for his greatly admired and influential poem, The Minstrel, first published in two books in 1771 and 1774.

George Glennie (1768-1845), minister of West Parish, Aberdeen and philosopher, married James Beattie's niece, Margaret Valentine. He succeeded Beattie in 1796 as professor of Moral Philosophy at Aberdeen University.