Becky Sharp, Major Pendennis, Beatrix, both as a young and as an old woman, were written with the same purpose.

There is a touch of satire in every drawing that he made.

A jeer is needed for something that is ridiculous, scorn has to be thrown on something that is vile.
The same feeling is to be found in every line of every ballad.
VANITAS VANITATUM.
Methinks the text is never stale, And life is every day renewing Fresh comments on the old old tale, Of Folly, Fortune, Glory, Ruin.
Hark to the preacher, preaching still! He lifts his voice and cries his sermon, Here at St.Peter's of Cornhill, As yonder on the Mount of Hermon-- For you and me to heart to take (O dear beloved brother readers), To-day,--as when the good king spake Beneath the solemn Syrian cedars.
It was just so with him always.

He was "crying his sermon," hoping, if it might be so, to do something towards lessening the evils he saw around him.

We all preach our sermon, but not always with the same earnestness.