limit number of categories per page on a category list page?

<?php
$categories = get_categories();
foreach ($categories as $cat) {
	if ($cat->category_parent != 0) {
		echo '<span style="padding-left:10px;">';
	}
	echo '<a href="'.get_option('home').get_option('category_base').'/'.$cat->category_nicename.'/">'.$cat->cat_name.'</a> ('.$cat->category_count.')';
	if ($cat->category_description != '') {
		echo ' - '.$cat->category_description;
	}
	if ($cat->category_parent != 0) {
		echo '</span>';
	}
	echo '<br />';
}
?>

I’m using this code to get the category list how woul i limit the amount shown per page?

I get a weird error when i place the code in, either it doesn’t work or I don’t know how to use it probably the ladder tho…

theres a error line 84…