The ministry he set aside.

From commerce, as he had always seen it in his native town, twelve hours a day of haggling and smirking, he shrank with all the impulses of his soul.

The abject country newspaper gave him no inkling of that fourth estate which was later to spring up in the land.

Arms he loved, but there was now no field for arms.

There were no family resources to tide him over the season of experiment, and, indeed, but for a brother and a sister, who lived in an adjoining farming community, he had no relatives to be considered in his plans.
Perforce, then, Franklin went into the law, facing it somewhat as he had the silent abattis, as with a duty to perform.