But even the French Revolution had its humors; and as the English Puritan Revolution gathered head and the extremer sectaries pressed to the frontQuakers, New Lights, Fifth Monarchy Men, Ranters, etc.,its grotesque sides came uppermost.

Yet it is true that the "humors" of Ben Jonson have an analogy with the extremer instances of Dickens's character sketches in this respect, namely, that they are both studies of the eccentric, the abnormal, the whimsical, rather than of the typical and universal; studies of manners, rather than of whole characters.