“The bottom is solid. You just haven't hit it yet because you are too busy admiring the fall.”Samuel Walker · Peter James Stouffer
Elias has just insisted there is no bottom. Samuel stands up abruptly, and the motion breaks the room's spell before the sentence does.
He is not offering comfort exactly. He is offering orientation: the descent has a floor, whether or not anyone has had the discipline to measure it.
The mercy in the line is hard because it refuses to admire despair. Samuel does not deny the fall. He denies that watching it counts as wisdom.