english historian peter gay argues that the scottish enlightenment "was a small and cohesive group of friends – david hume, adam smith, adam ferguson, and others – who knew one another intimately and talked to one another incessantly. education was a priority in scotland, both at the local level and especially in four universities that had stronger reputations than any in england. the enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions that took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in edinburgh as the select society and, later, the poker club as well as within scotland's ancient universities (st andrews, glasgow, edinburgh and aberdeen). sharing the humanist and rationalist outlook of the european enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the scottish enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. in scotland, the enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole. among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, economics, history architecture, and medicine. leaders included francis hutcheson, david hume, adam smith, dugald stewart, thomas reid, william robertson, henry home, lord kames, adam ferguson, john playfair, joseph black and james hutton. the scottish enlightenment influenced england and the american colonies, and to a lesser extent continental europe.