Abstract: Since the 19^th century, Edgar Allan Poe has been harshly admonished for his lack of explicit concern with social ethics in his literary works. Poe criticized and resisted the moralistic preaching that prevailed in the mainstream of the 19^th-century American literature, working in concert with the evolution of modern aesthetic paradigm. In adherence to the aesthetic principle of artistic autonomy, Poe set the pursuit of the congruous form and ideal beauty of art as his goal, generating, on a much higher level, a more intimate connection between beauty and morality (goodness) once again, and elevating the aesthetic spirit to a moral height. Meanwhile, Poe not only offered his endorsement for the implicit moral implications and concerns in literary works, but also practiced what he endorsed in his own literary writings. Reconstructing the moral core of Poe's literary criticism helps uncover the social value and ethical significance of his literary thought and, thereby, provides a new cognitive perspective on a comprehensive grasp of the relationship between the aesthetic value and the moral instruction from the art of his literary works.

Key words: Edgar Allan Poe, literary criticism, morality, goodness, harmony