It is easy to find the means and methods whereby Your Imperial Majesty can attain respect and fame, fulfill your official duties while simultaneously gaining important advantages for the Most Serene Arch-Ducal House, and thereby ease your conscience and ensure a successful reign. From the aforementioned it is self-evident, and it seems to rest on the following general rules, which can be applied to specific cases without difficulty. [ . . . ]
Source: Hans Voltelini, “Eine Denkschrift des Grafen Johann Anton Pergen über die Bedeutung der römischen Kaiserkrone für das Haus Österreich” [“A Memorandum by Count Johann Anton Pergon on the Meaning of the Imperial Throne for the House of Austria”], in Gesamtdeutsche Vergangenheit. Festgabe für Heinrich Ritter von Srbik zum 60. Geburtstag am 10. November 1938 [Pan-German Past. Gift for Heinrich Ritter von Srbik on his 60th Birthday on November 10, 1938]. Munich: Bruckmann, 1938, pp. 158-68.
Reprinted in Helmut Neuhaus, ed., Zeitalter des Absolutismus 1648-1789 [The Era of Absolutism, 1648-1789]. Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellung, edited by Rainer A. Müller, volume 5. Stuttgart: P. Reclam, 1997, pp. 121-30.
Tranlsation: Ben Marschke
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