Pomp is the affectation of spreading the idea of one’s worth, power, greatness, etc. by outward signs. Pomp came into the virtue of the Stoics. There is always some in brilliant deeds. Pomp sometimes raises men who would find it hard to be honest to the heroic. Pomp often makes generosity less rare than fairness; and good deeds easier than the habit of common virtue. Pomp comes into devotion, when it inspires more zealousness than custom, and less attachment to his duties as a man and citizen than the taste for extraordinary practices.

The word pomp is used more commonly to express the display of magnificence, that luxury of appearance and not of usefulness by which the lords assert their rank to the rest of men. They almost all have pomp in their manners: That is one of the signs by which they make their condition known. In countries where they are part of the government, they are arrogant and disdainful; in countries where they have less credit than pretention, they have a politeness which has its pomp , and by which they seek to please without transgressing their rank.

It is asked if, in this enlightened century, it is still useful for men who command nations to announce their greatness and the power of nations through excessive expense and the most pompous luxury? The peoples of Europe are fairly well informed of their common strengths to be able to distinguish in their neighbors the vain luxury of a veritable opulence. A nation would have more respect for leaders that enrich it than leaders who would like to pass as rich. Populated provinces, finances in good order, would impress foreigners and citizens more than the magnificence of the court. The only pomp that is suitable to great peoples is the monuments, great works and prodigies of art that make genius admired as far as they add to the idea of power.