Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/On the Apparel of Women/II/Chapter 4

Chapter IV.&#8212;Concerning the Plea of &#8220;Pleasing the Husband.&#8221;

As if I were speaking to Gentiles, addressing you with a Gentile precept, and (one which is) common to all, (I would say,) &#8220;You are bound to please your husbands only.&#8221; &#160; But you will please them in proportion as you take no care to please others.&#160; Be ye without carefulness, blessed (sisters):&#160; no wife is &#8220;ugly&#8221; to her own husband.&#160; She &#8220;pleased&#8221; him enough when she was selected (by him as his wife); whether commended by form or by character.&#160; Let none of you think that, if she abstain from the care of her person, she will incur the hatred and aversion of husbands.&#160; Every husband is the exactor of chastity; but beauty, a believing (husband) does not require, because we are not captivated by the same graces which the Gentiles think (to be) graces: &#160; an unbelieving one, on the other hand, even regards with suspicion, just from that infamous opinion of us which the Gentiles have.&#160; For whom, then, is it that you cherish your beauty?&#160; If for a believer, he does not exact it:&#160; if for an unbeliever, he does not believe in it unless it be artless. &#160; Why are you eager to please either one who is suspicious, or else one who desires it not?