Where does the desire to perpetuate his memory with funerary monuments come from?

"Last act of pride".

But isn't the sumptuousness of funeral monuments often due more to relatives who want to honour the memory of the deceased than to the deceased himself?

"Pride of the relatives who want to glorify themselves. Oh, such demonstrations are not always made out of consideration for the dead, but out of self-love and consideration for the world, and to show off riches. Do you think that the memory of a loved one is less lasting in the heart of a poor man, because he cannot place more than a flower on the grave? Do you think that marbles save from oblivion one who has been useful on earth?"

Do you censure the pomp of funerals at all?

"No, and when it is in honour of the memory of a good man, it is just and exemplary".

The grave is the gathering of all men, and in it all human distinctions mercilessly end. In vain does the rich man seek to perpetuate his memory by lavish monuments; time will destroy them like the body, for that is the will of nature. The memory of his good and evil deeds will be less perishable than his grave; the pomp of his funeral will not wash away his impurities, nor will it raise him one step in the spiritual hierarchy.