Using Pagination with Categories

Question

Is there a way to paginate a list of categories? For example, I have 9 categories and would like to display 3 categories with their description on each page. It seems like it should be as easy as the following, but no luck.

{exp:channel:categories limit="3" paginate="bottom"}
    <a href="{path='channel/index'}">{category_name}</a>
    {if category_description}{category_description}{/if}
 {paginate}
        {if previous_page}
            <a href="{auto_path}">Previous Page</a> &nbsp;
        {/if}
        {if next_page}
            <a href="{auto_path}">Next Page</a>
        {/if}
    {/paginate}
{/exp:channel:categories}