s adding to these accomplishments an acquaintance with the more
useful of the Chinese characters.

The Corean alphabet is remarkable for the way in which it represents the
various sounds. That this is the case, the reader will be able to judge
by the table given opposite. The aim of the inventors, in only using
straight lines and circles, has evidently been to simplify the writing of
the characters to the highest possible degree.

[Illustration: THE COREAN ALPHABET]

It will be at once noticed that an extra dot is used only in the case of
the vowel _e_ and the diphthong _oue_; nothing but straight lines and
circles being employed in the other cases. The pronunciation of the
consonants is _dental_ in _l, r, t_, and _n_; _guttural_ in _k_ and _k_
(aspirated); _palatal_ in _ch, ch_ (aspirated) and _s_; and _from the
larynx_ in _h_ and _ng_ when at the end of a word.

The State documents and all the official correspondence are written in
Chinese characters, and hardly at all in the native alphabet, an
exception being occasionally admitted in the case of a difficult
character, when the meaning is written with the Corean letters, side by
side with the Chinese form. The Corean alphabet is rather despised by the
male "blue stockings" of Cho-sen, and is considered as fit only for poor
people, children and women; in short, those whose brains are unable to
undergo the strain of mastering and, what is more, of remembering, the
meaning of the many thousands of Chinese characters. Not only that, but
the spoken language itself is considered inadequate to express in poetic
and graceful style the deep thoughts which may pass through the Corean
brains; and, certainly, if these thoughts have to be put down on paper
this is never done in the native characters. The result is, naturally,
that there is hardly any literature in the language of Cho-sen. Even the
historical records of the land of the Morning Calm are written in
Chinese.

The great influence of the Chinese over the Corean literary mind is also
shown in the fact that most of the principles and proverbs of Cho-sen
have been borrowed from their pig-tailed friends across the Yalu River.
The same may be said of numberless words in the Corean language which are
merely corruptions or mispronounced Chinese words. The study of Chinese
involves a great deal of labour and patience on the part of the Corean
students, and from a very tender age they are made to work hard at
learning the