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In spite of being one of the poorer countries in Europe, by 1750 the Scots developed an advanced public education system, part-funded by taxation and the Kirk. With its roots now firmly established, it was to flower as the Age of Reason - the Enlightenment – in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Philosophers such as David Hume reflected on human nature and reasoning, laying the way for widespread application of scientific methods. Adam Smith presented economics as a discipline for the first time and grappled with the underlying philosophy. James Hutton developed the science of geology, and was one of the first to speculate on evolution by natural selection. Writers such as Robert Burns reflected upon human values and a fair society.

Rejecting much of the religious dogma and received wisdom of the time, these free-thinkers looked at life from a humanist, as opposed to a superstitious, point of view. The old orders of politics and trade were questioned and changes proposed, authority itself was challenged. Although this was happening all over Europe, here the emphasis was on an empirical approach, where the world was to be observed closely and progress made by showing what worked.