§ 5. It seems, then, that though Freedom is an object of keen and general desire, and an important source of happiness, both in itself and indirectly from the satisfaction of natural impulses which it allows, the attempt to make it the fundamental notion of theoretical Jurisprudence is attended with insuperable difficulties: and that even the Natural Rights which it claims to cover cannot be brought under it except in a very forced and arbitrary manner.[216] But further, even if this were otherwise, an equal distribution of Freedom does not seem to exhaust our notion of Justice. Ideal Justice, as we commonly conceive it, seems to demand that not only Freedom but all other benefits and burdens should be distributed, if not equally, at any rate justly,--Justice in distribution being regarded as not identical with Equality, but merely exclusive of arbitrary inequality. How, then, shall we find the principle of this highest and most comprehensive ideal? We shall be led to it, I think, by referring again to one of the grounds of obligation to render services, which was noticed in the last chapter: the claim of Gratitude. It there appeared that we have not only a natural impulse to requite benefits, but also a conviction that such requital is a duty, and its omission blameworthy, to some extent at least; though we find it difficult to define the extent. Now it seems that when we, so to say, _universalise_ this impulse and conviction, we get the element in the common view of Justice, which we are now trying to define. For if we take the proposition ‘that good done to any individual ought to be requited by him,’ and leave out the relation to the individual in either term of the proposition, we seem to have an equally strong conviction of the truth of the more general statement ‘that good deeds ought to be requited.’[217] And if we take into consideration all the different kinds and degrees of services, upon the mutual exchange of which society is based, we get the proposition ‘that men ought to be rewarded in proportion to their deserts.’ And this would be commonly held to be the true and simple principle of distribution in any case where there are no claims arising from Contract or Custom to modify its operation.