And the Editor of these Sheets will have his End, if it inspires in the Minds of any Persons, who may thereby intitle themselves to the Rewards, the Praises, and the Blessings, by which she was so deservedly distinguished.Samuel Richardson, PamelaIt may seem merely conventional for an eighteenth-century writer to assign didactic purpose to novel, as Samuel Richardson does in the last sentence of Pamela, but this call to laudable Emulation of his heroine disguises more complex discursive project. meant more to eighteenth-century readers than just copying; its purpose was self-improvement achieved by equaling or excelling the qualities of the object of imitation. Accordingly, the reader who emulates Pamela will be more than of all the rewards that Pamela receives in the novel. Nonetheless, Richardson's directive evokes question: what aspects of Pamela's behavior should the reader emulate? Should all young women virtuously refuse male sexual advances? Certainly. Should all servant girls attempt to marry their masters and behave like gentlewomen? Certainly not. The voluminous discourse on the conduct of servants and masters during the eighteenth century explicitly warns against this kind of aspirational in the working classes. Further, the discerning reader would only need to consider the calamitous fate of another literary servant who bedded her master and imitated gentlewoman, Amy in Daniel Defoe's Roxana, to recognize the consequences of such behavior. What, then, does Richardson mean when he writes that worthy Persons should perform a Emulation of Pamela? What makes person of emulating Pamela, and how does one know when is laudable?This essay is concerned with two of the best-known literary servants of the eighteenth century, Richardson's Pamela and Defoe's Amy, and the anxieties about that pervade the period in which their stories were written. Literary and historical scholarship on tends to focus on the emulation thesis, which argues that consumption of goods is dictated by desire to imitate one's social superiors.1 However, this limited economic focus neglects broader context. As Richardson's comments in the epigraph indicate, also was contested social and moral value during this period. By locating fears about working-class consumption within the larger discourse on emulation, we see that this consumption of goods threatened entrenched ideas about class-based moral and intellectual superiority. With so much at stake, the novel was powerful resource for disseminating the master's claim to moral authority over emulation. In Pamela, Richardson constructs his young heroine as master-class ideal, attempting to assuage anxiety through piously contented servant maid whose social elevation is carefully controlled at every turn. Pamela's emulative consumption is carefully supervised, and her marriage to Mr. B is (pointedly) the direct result of her refusal to attempt to transcend her station-in other words, what makes her of social elevation is her virtuous contentment with her place. In contrast to Richardson's idealized representation, Defoe uses the figure of Amy to depict the horrifying threat of an unregulated working-class emulation. Despite her affection and fidelity, Amy's undisciplined corrupts her mistress by inverting the proper domestic and social order, and Roxana's failure to regulate her maid's emulative behavior has fatal consequences. Whether through pleasing fantasy or cautionary nightmare, Richardson and Defoe use the figure of the domestic servant to consolidate the authority of the master over the contentious discourse surrounding emulation.During the eighteenth century, was among the chief virtues cultivated by decorous and pious Britons. Conduct texts, educational tracts, and national and religious histories urged spirit of emulation, the desire to improve oneself by following the example of social or religious betters with the goal of attaining equal or even superior virtues. …