In 1714, he began to write a short work titled "Synopsis Philosophiae Naturalis "summing up what the Puritan Mind knew of natural philosophy. Leaving this attempt incomplete, he began working instead for his master's thesis by writing in Latin a more ambitious "encyclopedia of all knowledge", titled "Technologia Sive Technometria or Ars Encyclopaidia, Manualis Ceu Philosophia; Systema Liber Artis." It was a systematic exploration of all knowledge available to Johnson based on the methods of the Reformation logician Petrus Ramus. His work on this logical exploration of the Puritan New England Mind would eventually result in 1271 hierarchically arranged theses. It has been called by Norman Fiering “the best surviving American example of student application of Ramist method to the whole body of human knowledge”.